europe: the cold war & after. arms race the cold war triggered an arms race, with both sides...
TRANSCRIPT
Europe: The Cold War & After
Arms Race • The Cold War triggered an arms
race, with both sides producing huge arsenals of nuclear weapons.
• Each side wanted to have the power to deter the other from launching its nuclear weapons. The result was a “balance of terror”.
Both superpowers spent huge sums of money on weapons. Such spending meant cutbacks in other
areas.• In 1953, President
Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans about the impact:
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched…signifies…a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
Key Leaders of the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A.
U.S.S.R. (Totalitarianism)
1. Joseph Stalin (1924-1953)2. Nikita Khrushchev (1955-
1964)3. Leonid Brezhnev (1964-
1982)4. Mikhail Gorbachev
(1985-1991)5. Boris Yeltsin – end of the
U.S.S.R. and the return of Russia
U.S.A. (Democracy)1. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)2. Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)3. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)4. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)5. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)6. Richard Nixon (1969-1974)7. Gerald Ford (1974-1977)8. Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)9. Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)10. George Bush (senior) (1989-1993)
Conflict … Coexistence …Collapse
A Long Journey …
• Striving for peaceful coexistence.
• Easing of tensions from 1968 to 1979; era of increased trade.
• The START negotiations (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties) started in 1982.
In 1980, few thought this picture was possible!
1985: Reagan & Gorbachev
Mikhail GorbachevGeneral Secretary of the Soviet
Communist Party 1985-1991
• Gorbachev began to reform the U.S.S.R.
• Reforms launched in 1986 are framed by two key concepts: Glasnost ("openness") Perestroika ("restructuring")
1980’s Glasnost = Openness
• The policy of openness and transparency in government together with freedom of information in the second half of the 1980s (We can now see behind the Iron Curtain).
• Friendship with the U.S.A.
• Less censorship and greater freedom of information.
• Before long people began to expose severe social and economic problems which the Soviet government had covered up, such as poor housing, food shortages, alcoholism, widespread pollution, and inequality for women.
1980’s Perestroika = Restructuring• Its literal meaning is "restructuring", referring to the
restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system—basically the U.S.S.R. stopped trying to control everyone.
• Perestroika is often blamed for the break-up of the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War.
Ronald ReaganPresident (1981-1989)
• Reagan recognized the change in the direction of the Soviet leadership with Mikhail Gorbachev and shifted to diplomacy to encourage the Soviet leader to pursue arms agreements.
• Reagan's personal mission was to achieve "a world free of nuclear weapons."
• He was able to start discussions on nuclear disarmament with Mikhail Gorbachev.
S.T.A.R.T.(Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)
• A treaty between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. on the Reduction and Limitation of Nuclear Weapons.
• The treaty was signed in July 1991.
• The treaty kept the countries from having more than 6,000 nuclear missiles and forced them to begin to get rid of some of these nuclear weapons.
Soviet Union Breaks Up!• The break up of the Soviet Union
resulted in the destruction of the Soviet Government ("the Union centre") and the independence of the USSR's republics on December 25, 1991.
• Many of the republics of the Soviet Union declared their independence and were recognized as sovereign nation-states.
Reasons for collapse of USSR & Communism are still being debated
• Primary reasons include: Economic flaws of communism Expense of the Arms Race U.S.A. containment strategy and Truman Doctrine Superiority of ‘democracy’ Totalitarianism does not work
• Triggers: Afghanistan War (1979-88); Chernobyl nuclear accident (1986); Solidarity strikes (1988)
• Collapse of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the Warsaw Pact (1991)
The U.S.S.R Breaks Apart
One Soviet Union (U.S.S.R)
• Russia • Georgia • Ukraine • Moldova • Belarus • Armenia • Azerbaijan • Kazakhstan • Uzbekistan • Turkmenistan • Kyrgyzstan • Tajikistan • Estonia • Latvia • Lithuania
became
15 Independent
Countries!
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is dissolved
Berlin Wall Torn Down! (Nov. 1989)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZCwlKiiZrs
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3iTU1xK-Q8
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBux1hXaR5w (4mns)
• The Chicago neighborhood of Lincoln Square used to have a large German immigrant community.
• There is a piece of the Berlin wall at the Western Brown Line Stop.
“It should be an inspiration for
future generations to understand that we should never
ever allow this to be happening again
anywhere else in the world.”
Ronald Reagan’s Speech at the Berlin Wall
• http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/reagan-tear-down.htm
• 1987 President Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate (“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”)