8.8: End of the Cold War

1. US military and technological development through SDI

2. Failed Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

3. Public discontent and economic weakness inside the USSR

The Final Decades of the Cold War Era

• One factor that played a role in the end of the Cold War was the agreement by both countries to limit nuclear weapons

Détente and a Colder War

• After the Bay of Pigs crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis were resolved, relations between the US and USSR improved

• This period of time was called détente, a relaxation of strained relations between nations

• In 1972, Nixon and Brezhnev signed Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)
• designed to freeze the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles that each power could keep

• US even agreed to sell excess grain to the USSR, which was in a drought
• Benefited American farmers as they now had a new market to sell to
• After USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979, however, US stopped this sell of grain, marking the end of détente

Soviet-Afghan War

• Was basically USSR’s Vietnam War

• Context: Communists were in power in Afghanistan but were overthrown by Muslim fighters, so the USSR invades Afghanistan in 1979 to restore communist rule

• War was long and went no where for the Soviets: it lasted for nine years

• Soviets were not able to overcome the guerilla groups in the rough terrain of Afghanistan
• Didn’t help that the CIA was also training them

• Impact of war: war was putting stress on the Soviet Union’s economy and left Soviet leadership vulnerable to reform
• War was taking up a lot of resources as well, both economic, and military resources

Strategic Defense Initiative

• In 1983, Reagan declared the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
• Plan was that missiles targeting US and allies could be destroyed from space using lasers
• Plan also known as “Star Wars” due to the lasers and space part of it
• Even though this plan never came into fruition, the significance of it was its declaration
• The fact the US was supposedly working on this system meant Soviet nukes were obsolete, as they would be destroyed if they tried to nuke the US
• On top of that, the USSR didn’t have this: only the US did
• SDI worried liberal and moderate Soviets, who pushed for reforms

The Thaw

• Mikhail Gorbachev, a more progressive Communist than previous Soviet leaders, came to power in 1985

• Instituted perestroika, attempts to modernize the Soviet economy through reforms; such as allowing elements of free enterprise

• Also instituted glasnost, which allowed elements of freedom of speech and increased political openness

• In 1987, US and USSR sign Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which restricted intermediate-range nuclear weapons
• Made hardliner Conservatives in the USSR quiet, so Gorbachev was more able to pursue his reforms

The End of the Soviet Union

• Gorbachev said that he would end economic and military support for Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe
• Once people in these satellites got a taste of freedom, they wanted it more, and as the USSR wasn’t going to come to the economic or military aid of these regimes, they quickly fell
• Democratic movement swept Eastern Europe in 1989

Spread of Reforms

• These reforms/anti-Communist didn’t just stay in the Soviet satellites however: people in republics part of the USSR itself started to revolt
• Ex: Lithuania, Georgia began to overthrow their rulers and declare independence

• In 1991, Gorbachev’s reforms ultimately led to the end of the Soviet Union
• Former soviet republics became individual countries