Legacy of Détente: 1970s Diplomacy

1. End of the Cold War The Détente 60s -70s and Fall of the USSR What did détente achieve in the 1970s? To what extent was détente successful in the 1970s? Was there any genuine détente between East and West in the 1970s?

2. Causes of the Détente • America was shocked by the Vietnam War and wanted to stay out of world affairs • Rise of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament(CND)in the West • Arms race was very expensive for both superpowers • Price of oil rocketed in the 1970s, and both superpowers experienced economic problems

3. 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty • Powers with nuclear weapons agreed not to give any other countries nuclear technology • Included the US, Russia, and the UK (+ 59 other countries in 1968) • Steps to be taken to world-wide nuclear disarmament • Ensure that nuclear technologies that are used for good (like electricity) is not diverted secretly to make weapons and must be declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency • Routine inspections mandatory

4. NPT FYI • India, Israel, Pakistan never signed • North Korea withdrew in 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

5. 1971-2 China-US Relations • US Table Tennis Team plays in China • US drops veto to allow China into the UN (US vetoed the entrance of the PRC since 1949) • 1972 Nixon visits China

6. 1969-72 SALT 1 • Strategic Arms Limitation Talks • Numbers of ICBM and SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missiles) frozen – you can make new ones but you must dismantle old ones • Between Nixon and Brezhnev • Interim Agreement signed

7. 1972-79 SALT 2 • Discuss equal numbers of nuclear delivery vehicles • Reduction of these vehicles • Signed by President Carter but not ratified by the Senate due to Soviets in Afghanistan

8. Helsinki Accords 1975 • Soviet Union was looking for recognition of control over Baltic States • West was concerned with human rights issues in the USSR (Jews not allowed to emigrate • A trade for the above was made and watch groups set up in USSR and human rights acknowledged as an international issue

9. Did the Détente solve the Cold War? • NPT did not stop other countries developing nuclear weapons (eg China, and perhaps South Africa and Israel). • Neither Russia or America kept to the SALT1 agreement. SALT2 Treaty added little. • In the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, America supported Israel, and Russia supported Egypt and Syria. • Helsinki Agreement achieved nothing - it confirmed the Iron Curtain and Russia ignored its promises about human rights. • Table tennis and space meetings (1975) were just propaganda stunts • Brezhnev said that Communists would still try to destroy capitalism • Some historians suggest that Nixon only went to China to drive a wedge between Russia and China

10. End of the USSR and the Cold War? Did America “defeat” the USSR?

11. Ronald Reagan • President in 1980-88 • Takes power in a heavily anti-communist and anti-soviet America • Oversees creation of SDI, neutron bomb, and cruise missiles

12. Strategic Defense Initiative 1983 • Satellites that would shoot down ICBMs • Proves to be a useless program with SLBMs and Cruise Missiles • SLBMs could be launched close to targets • Cruise Missiles were launched from planes and flew low to the ground • Proves too costly and is ended in 1993 in favour of ground-based anti-missile defenses

14. Problems of the USSR in the 1980s • Afghanistan had become "Russia's Vietnam". • Russia could not afford the arms race, spending about 25% of their GDP on military = poor economy • The Soviet economy was backwards - factories and mines were decrepit and out of date. • Backward industry was causing increasing environmental problems - eg pollution, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion of 1986, and the Aral Sea dried up. • Many people were much poorer than the poorest people in the capitalist West - unrest about shortages was growing. • Policy of work for everyone gave little incentive for people to do better or find jobs they were competent for. • Crime, alcoholism and drugs were out of control in Soviet towns. • The Soviet system had become corrupt and out of date - instead of dealing with problems, the government just covered them up (eg Chernobyl, 1986). • Main threat was the economy now, not the Cold War

15. Mikhail Gorbachev • Takes over 1985 • START • “Perestroika” and “glasnost” • 1987 he met with Ronald Reagan and signed the Immediate Nuclear Forces (INF) abolition treaty • 1988 withdrawal from Afghanistan

16. START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) • Signed in 1991 – achieved in 2001 • Signed by Bush (Sr) but talks started with Reagan • Reduction of 30-40% of US and USSR’s nuclear weapons in phases – down to 6000 each (or less) • Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine to be nuclear weapon free (after the fall of USSR)

17. Glasnost • Policy of openness (literal translation) • Encouraged more commentary, questioning, and critique of the government • Restrictions on media and writing were relaxed • Purpose to improve government by finding out the inefficiencies • Information regarding the “truth” behind dictators were made public (Stalin, Brezhnev, etc.) • New wave of thought lead to the fall of the USSR

18. Perestroika • Perestroika means overcoming the stagnation process, breaking down the braking mechanism, creating a dependable and effective mechanism for acceleration of social and economic progress and giving it greater dynamism. • Perestroika means mass initiative. It is the conference of development of democracy, socialist self-government, encouragement of initiative and creative endeavor, improved water and disciplined, more glasnost, criticism and self-criticism in all spheres of our society. It is utmost respect for the individual and consideration for personal dignity. • Perestroika is the all-round intensification of the Soviet economy, the revival and development of the principles of democratic centralism in running the national economy, the universal introduction of economic methods, the renunciation of management by injunction and by administrative methods, and the overall encouragement of innovation and socialist enterprise. • Perestroika means a resolute shift to scientific methods, an ability to provide a solid scientific basis for every new initiative. It means the combination of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with a planned economy [Source: Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika (New York: Harper Collins, 1987), quoted in Mark Kishlansky, ed., Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization, 4th ed., vol. 2 (New York: Longman, 2001), p. 322.]

19. Perestroika • Perestroika means priority development of the social sphere aimed at ever better satisfaction of the Soviet people's requirements for good living and working conditions, for good rest and recreation, education and health care. It means unceasing concern for cultural and spiritual wealth, for the culture of every individual and society as a whole. • Perestroika means the elimination from society of the distortions of socialist ethics, the consistent implementation of the principles of social justice. It means the unity of words and deeds, rights and duties. It is the elevation of honest, highly-qualified labor, the overcoming of leveling tendencies in pay and consumerism. . . . I stress once again: perestroika is not some kind of illumination or revelation. To restructure our life means to understand the objective necessity for renovation and acceleration. And that necessity emerged in the heart of our society. The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice. Such is the essence of perestroika, which accounts for its genuine revolutionary spirit and its all-embracing scope. The goal is worth the effort. And we are sure that are effort will be a worthy contribution to humanity's social progress. [Source: Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika (New York: Harper Collins, 1987), quoted in Mark Kishlansky, ed., Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization, 4th ed., vol. 2 (New York: Longman, 2001), p. 322.]

20. Poland • Announcement of price rises Dec 1970 generates workers’ protests, Wladyslaw Gomułka ousted • 1970-1980 Edward Gierek • Massive investment to modernize Polish industrial output through enormous loans from West, leads to astronomical debts • prices rise June 1976 and August 1980

21. Poland • August 1980, Lech Walesa (electrician) leads a strike at the shipyards in Gdansk to protest a rise in food prices • Announces the “Solidarity” independent trade union – achieved after 17 days • Gained the right to organize and strike • Soviets attempt to quell the movement, meets with Polish Prime Minister to outlaw Solidarity • Walesa is jailed for a year and watched after he was released

22. Poland • Walesa wins the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for the use of nonviolence in his protests • Walesa is backed by America, Britain and Pope John Paul II • Faced with intense social and economic pressure, Jaruzelski finally agreed to talks with Solidarity in early 1989 • June 1989 first free elections ever in the communist bloc, Solidarity won and Poland gets its first post-war non-communist government

23. Berlin Wall • 1989 Hungary allows East Germans through their borders and into Austria and out of the Iron Curtain • Wall is useless • Fall of 1989 a new government in East Germany lifts the travel restrictions • Nov 9, wall is torn down by East Berliners

25. Malta Summit December 1989 • Bush and Gorbachev meet • No formal agreements signed • Signifies the end of the Cold War

26. Reunification of Germany 1990 • First free election in East Germany and they voted in favour of reunifying with West Germany • West Germany agrees to pay USSR to finance the withdrawal of Soviet Troops from East Germany • East still suffers from obsolete and insufficient infrastructure due to communism • Westerners aren’t happy with having to fund East’s improvements • Immigration policy creates tensions and the rise of Neo-Nazism and in 1993 immigration is tightented

27. Fall of the Soviet Union Moscow coup in 1991 • 12 June 1991, Boris Yeltsin won 57% (Russia, not USSR) of the popular vote – policy of rapid reform towards capitalism • Communists provoked by Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost and perestroika and “allowing” Eastern Europe to fall out of the Soviet Sphere • Communist party members believed that Gorbachev was being manipulated by the CIA

28. Fall of the Soviet Union • Communist party members defy Gorbachev and enter Moscow on August 19 (Gorbachev was on holiday in the Crimea) • Yeltsin and his supporters stand up to the coup without fighting • Gorbachev accepts blame for the coup • Communist party is weakened and states like Belarus, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania claim independence and banned the Communist Party

29. Yugoslavia • Tito dies in 1980 • Sparked by self-determination of Soviet states, different nations in Yugoslavia wish for self-determination as well • Communists will lose power in almost all states throughout the 80s • Nations will fight for independence from Yugoslavia (p 229)

30. Read Pages: 168-171 211-228 Do: P 173 #1-3 P 216 #1-3 P 220 #1a P 226 Map Study #1-2 P 228 #1,3,4 P 229 Map Study #1-3 Be prepared to explain your answers to these questions to the class tomorrow You will be chosen at random to answer Failure to answer = no homework mark Homework Assignment