Reagan-Gorbachev-Bush

•Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980

•opposed to detente, Reagan adopted a more confrontational approach to the Soviet Union - referring to it as the “evil empire”

•Regan supported a major military buildup and preparation for the militarization of space

•his opposition to Soviet influence included military intervention in Grenada in 1983 and support for the anti-Marxist forces, the Contras, in Nicaragua

•Reagan’s was committed to the belief that communism was a “temporary aberration which will one day disappear”

•the stalemate which detente reinforced must, according to Reagan, be broken

•his speech to the British parliament in 1982 condemned the communist system for failing to deliver on its promises

•the Soviet Union was an “evil empire”

•the United States must not compromise - his policies reflected this new hardline attitude

•Reagan doubled military spending

•he proposed START -Strategic Arms Reduction Talks - as a replacement for SALT II

•with Moscow’s rejection of Reagan’s “zero-option” the U.S. went ahead with the installation of Pershing II and cruise missiles in western Europe

•in 1983 Reagan repudiated the concept of MAD

•with the assumption that the Soviet empire was in decline, both economically and politically, Reagan made his proposal for a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

•the new Soviet leader, Andropov, perceived the Reagan policies as increasingly threatening

•tension mounted with the shooting down of the South Korean airliner over Soviet airspace and the Soviet perception of NATO military maneuvers (Able Archer 83”)

•a major shift in U.S./U.S.S.R. relations took place with the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the Communist Party

•Gobachev represented a new departure - “We can’t go on living like this”

•Gorbachev had concluded that the arms race must be ended

•an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 had important implications for Gorbachev

•it revealed “the sickness of our system”

•to address the systemic problems of the Soviet Union Gorbachev proposed two new policies - glasnost (openess) and perestroika (restructuring)

•both policies would begin the transformation of the U.S.S.R. and ultimately lead to its demise

•in October, 1986 Reagan and Gorbachev met for a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland

•while disagreements continued on the question of SDI both sides acknowledged as a goal the total elimination of nuclear weapons

•at their third summit meeting in Washington in December, 1987 both leaders signed a treaty providing for the dismantling of all intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe

•the Reagan Doctrine included encouragement of anti-Soviet resistance movements and efforts to convince Gorbachev of the weakness of the Soviet position

•in June, 1987 Reagan made a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin demanding that “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”

•Gorbachev was already willing to commit to a major reversal of Soviet policy

•troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan

•Gorbachev made it clear that the U.S.S.R. would not use force to maintain communist regimes in eastern Europe

•in his U.N. speech in December, 1988 he promised that the Soviet Union would unilaterally reduce its forces in the Warsaw Pact

•“Freedom of choice is a universal principle”

•when George H.W. Bush took office in 1989 a more skeptical attitude prevailed

•likewise, Gorbachev commented “Big breakthroughs can hardly be expected”

•however, the dramatic events in eastern Europe in late 1989 forced both leaders to adopt a new perspective

•at the Malta summit in December, 1989 Gorbachev informed Bush that both countries must commit to dialogue, coordination and cooperation

•when the Berlin Wall came down the question of German reunification arose

•after much discussion Bush, Gorbachev and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed that the two German states would unite and, importantly, the new Germany would be a member of the NATO alliance

•within the Soviet Union the movement towards its dissolution was gathering pace

•the Baltic states voted for independence and Boris Yeltsin emerged as the leader of the Russian Republic

•in the Moscow summit of July,1990 Bush and Gorbachev signed the START I arms control treaty

•Bush attempted to provide support for Gorbachev’s position within the Soviet Union, reflecting his ambivalence on its possible breakup

•with the failure of the attempted coup against Gorbachev in July, 1991 Boris Yeltsin took power in Moscow

•Yeltsin abolished the Communist Party

•acknowledged the independence of the Baltic States

•and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States

•the Soviet Union had been dissolved

•Gorbachev, distressed by the turn of events, could only bow to the inevitable

•on December 25, 1991 he signed the decree that officially terminated the U.S.S.R.

•in his farewell address, Gorbachev stated that “An end has been put to the ‘Cold War’