When Reagan became President he had only one well-defined foreign policy goal: containing the Soviet Union or the "evil empire" as he once referred to it (Reagan 1983). He primarily wanted to stop the USSR from growing larger and to keep other non-Communist countries from becoming Communist. He disliked the decade-long Détente begun by President Nixon and continued by President Ford. Détente is defined as a relaxation of strained relations or tensions between nations, in this case the two nations being the United States and the Soviet Union. Reagan firmly believed that the USSR was using Détente and the SALT talks to take advantage of the United States.
The impact of the Berlin Crisis and the u2 spy plane incident in 1960 also displayed the tensions between the superpowers during the Cold War years. The end of the Korean War in 1953 can be seen as ‘peace coexistence’ easing Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the USA it showed cooperation between the countries when an armistice was concluded that brought the fighting to an end. The war had produced a stalemate since 1951 and the peace talks that had been going on had been protracted, but with the change in leadership in both the USA and the USSR there was more interaction in a less hostile manner and so a conclusion could be reached. The fact that their was a Berlin Foreign Ministers’ conference in January 1954 showed ease as the two countries could discuss matters and
A quote from Ronald Reagan with a conversation with Richard V. Allen says “My idea of the American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic.” “It is this: We win and they lose. What do you think of that?” In his first term as president, both he and Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, put down the Soviet Unions ideas and political thoughts. Other bold statements he has made of the Soviet Union is, “The Soviet Union is an evil empire and communism will soon be but an ash heap of history.” These
I Introduction Invasion of the Body Snatchers sounds like the least political, and least historically accurate, movie ever made. However it is a key document to understanding major themes from the Cold War period. The Cold War was most prominent in the 1950s. It began with the two huge post WWII powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, having two very different views on how the new world should be run. The Soviets strived for communism, where everyone, at least in principle, had equal shares and no one was above another, while the United states wanted to spread their values of democracy to re-developing countries across the globe.
"While particular nationalisms vary, this basic nationalist conception of an ideal world order has been remarkably unchanged for well over a century." The concept of nationalism has survived setbacks since the French Revolution. One argument against the spread of nationalism is that such a phenomenon destabilizes the international political order. The harmful effects of alteration of existing borders�even peaceful alteration�would, it is contended, outweigh the benefits. "The belief of the Bush administration that the United States was a status quo power explains its efforts to keep both the Soviet empire and the Yugoslav federation intact."
Despite hostility created by Hungary in 1956 and Berlin 1958-1962, superpower relations after 1953 did generally stabilise, as pressures from the arms race and economic concerns pushed them towards accommodation. A key development which helped to ease the Cold War tensions was the end of the Korean War in 1953. The war had produced a stalemate and peace talks had been halted since 1951, however with new leaders in both the USA and USSR extra emphasis was placed on coming to an agreement and an armistice was concluded. This lessened tensions as Khrushchev had pressured Kim IL Sung, North Korea’s leader to agree to a ceasefire, which showed the USA his commitment to the policy. The Austrian State Treaty of 1955 eased tensions immediately between the East and West.
Stalin helped Communist parties in them to win power, he made sure that these eastern European countries followed the same policies as the Soviet Union by becoming one-party states. * There was also a need to restore law and order. This provided a good excuse to station Soviet troops in each country. * The economies of Eastern Europe were shattered. Governments followed the economic policies of the Soviet Union.
To What Extent did Ideological Differences Cause the Cold War? The Cold War is the term used to describe the relationship between capitalist America and communist USSR. Unlike most wars, neither side ever fought the other – but they did ‘fight’ for their beliefs using client states that fought for their beliefs on their behalf. This can be seen in South Vietnam, an anti-communist area supplied by the USA during World War II, whilst North Vietnam was pro-communist and fought the sough using weapons from communist Russia. The USA was the richest world power and capitalist, believing in free elections, a democratic government, personal freedom, freedom of the media, and ‘survival of the fittest.’ On the other hand, the USSR was communist with a poor economic base, no elections or fixed elections, a collective outlook, a society controlled by the NKVD (secret police), and total censorship.
To what extent did Gorbachev contribute to the break-up of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact? Under the control of Stalin, communist states in Eastern Europe were forced to join the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which was a military alliance against the US NATO. Besides, earlier in 1947, he also launched the Molotov Plan which was an economic assistance to the Soviet satellites, had brought a great economic burden on itself. Luckily, there’s an upturn of Soviet after 1984. Gorbachev, who was the new General Secretary in 1985, was to a large extent contributed to the break-up of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact.
This was a first sign that Margaret Thatcher had utterly marked Britain or even the world, seeing as we still refer to her policies as Thatcherism today. Her policies were founded on two main principals. Trying to avert the consensus politics that had been developed in Britain since the Second World War, and emasculating the Trade Unions that had resulted in extremely violent riots in the late 1970s. Thatcher was determined to show that Great Britain had returned ready to defeat the persisting issues that remained in Britain at the time, such as, rising inflation, unemployment, governmental spending, taxes, reversing Keynesianism and giving the British population a bit more freedom to fight and live for themselves. To Scargill’s disappointment, taking charge over the Trade Unions, she put forward the strike ballots to avoid workers from simply walking out of work in protest.