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The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

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The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative. Mr. Turner. Jimmy Carter and Détente. Détente was at a high point when Carter took office. However, Carter’s stand on human rights alienated the Soviet Union - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative Mr. Turner
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Page 1: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Mr. Turner

Page 2: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Jimmy Carter and Détente

Détente was at a high point when Carter took office. However, Carter’s stand on human rights alienated the Soviet Union

The Soviets backed Cuban troops helped support revolutionary factions in Angola, Ethiopia, and elsewhere in Africa

Page 3: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Jimmy Carter and Détente

In December 1979, relations were further strained when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, a country on its southern border. It sent troops to end agitation against the Soviet-supported government there. The Soviets became bogged down and it became “Russia’s Vietnam”

Carter told Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, that the invasion was a “clear threat to the peace.” A United Nations resolution also called for Soviet withdrawal

Page 4: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative
Page 5: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Carter’s Response To Soviet Aggression The U.S. and 60 other nations boycotted

the 1980 Olympics that were being held in Moscow

He proposed the creation of a “Rapid Deployment Force” to respond to suddenly developing crises in faraway places

Requested that young people (including women) be made to register for a possible military draft

Said he would use any means necessary to protect the Persian Gulf against Soviet incursions

Page 6: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

End of Détente

A small, but influential group of thinkers known as Neo-Conservatives gained influence in Washington

They believed that: Liberal U.S. society was doomed because individual

freedom made people selfish In order to bind society together, they emphasized:

Religion (fundamentalist Christianity) Extreme nationalism (the belief that the U.S. was a

unique nation standing for goodness, while evil was Communism)

Page 7: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Neo-Conservatives

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others came to dominate U.S. foreign policy

They determined to go on the attack against Communism to win the Cold War

Page 8: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Reagan’s Strategy With the Soviets

Believed in negotiating with the Soviets only from a position of overwhelming strength. He wanted to do this by creating a new and expensive arms race

The American economy, theoretically, could better bear this new financial burden than could the creaking Soviet system. Eventually, when they were out of money, they’d have to come to the bargaining table with Reagan

Page 9: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Reagan Doctrine

President Reagan decided to foster and support irregular forces to overthrow pro-Soviet governments in the Third World: Angola Nicaragua

This was called the Reagan Doctrine

Page 10: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Increasing Tensions

Solidarity In late 1981, the government of Poland

organized into a massive union called “Solidarity”

The government of Poland put martial law on the country

Reagan believed that the Soviets were behind this, and he imposed economic sanctions on Poland and the USSR

Page 11: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Increasing Tensions

In 1981, the Reagan administration funded terrorists to try to destabilize the government of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua

A secret deal had been done selling arms to the Iranians in return for releasing U.S. hostages they had taken

In order to bypass Congress, this money was illegally used to fund the Contras

Page 12: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Increasing Tensions

1982-1985 Three Soviet Kremlins died

September 1983 The Soviets shot down a Korean passenger

airliner that had inexplicably violated Soviet airspace

Hundreds of civilians, including Americans, lost their lives

October 1983 When a left-wing government took over

Grenada, the U.S. invaded the country

Page 13: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Increasing Tensions

End of 1983 All arms-control

negotiations with the Soviets were broken off

1984 The Soviets and Soviet-

bloc athletes boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles

Page 14: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

The Nuclear Arms Race Was accelerated:

Reagan was surrounded by people who believed that the U.S. could fight and survive a nuclear conflict (Nuclear Use Theorists – NUTs)

CIA officials, led by George H.W. Bush, came up with a report that the Soviets were achieving military superiority and were preparing to fight a nuclear war

The USSR was portrayed as threatening and officials claimed they were hiding new weapons systems (in actuality, they were declining in military power)

Page 15: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

The Nuclear Arms Race

In the mid 1970s, a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was rejected

The U.S. Senate refused to ratify SALT II limiting numbers of missiles on both sides

NATO, the U.S., and the Soviet Union deployed more missiles in Europe

Page 16: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

In March 1983, Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly known as Star Wars. The plan called for orbiting battle stations in space that could fire laser beams to vaporize intercontinental missiles

Most scientists considered this an impossible goal, but it fit with Reagan’s arms race strategy with the Soviets

Page 17: The Cold War – End of Détente to Strategic Defense Initiative

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