1) Change in the USA’s attitude and image -When Reagan became president, the USA was in decline. Its economy was in depression and inflation and unemployment rates were high. -The USA had just been defeated in Vietnam= scared+ divided American society. -Rapid expansion of S.U nuclear capacity between 1975-1980= USA felt vulnerable to nuclear attack Because of these three factors , Reagan felt that the USA was in retreat= propelled Reagan into offensive. 1980: bring about spiritual revival in America + restoration of natural pride and confidence.
By 1986 the Soviet economy suffered from both hidden inflation and pervasive supply shortages which were aggravated by an increasingly open black market that undermined the official economy. In addition, the USSR spent a lot on the military, they lost over 15,000 soldiers in the war against Afghanistan which had cost them $8 billion per annum. They also overspent in the Reagan years, the defence spending increased by $32.6 billion as they tried to compete with the USA STAR WARS programme but could not compete. Also, the USSR spent $40 billion propping up Communist Governments throughout the world. The USSR was left behind by the new wave of industrialisation as it was based on information technology, they were left desperate for Western technology.
This could have acted as a powerbase for the Kapp Putsch and the eventual rise of the Nazis. The humiliation was also a main factor in weakening prospects for democracy for two reasons it led to stab in the back myth and a national inferiority complex. The stab in the back myth was perpetuated by the far right and the leading army generals. The stab in the back myth was that Germany was not losing ww1 and that the democratic politicians “stabbed Germany in the back” by surrendering to the entente. This allowed the far right to exploit the Germans hate of the treaty of Versailles and connect the treaty to democracy, so the people wouldn’t blame the loss of ww1 on the army but the democratic politician’s.
The economic problems of the Soviet Bloc were at the core of communisms downfall. In the early days of communism Stalin had set out to emulate the success of the western capitalist economies, which were at the time dominated by heavy industry (steel, power plants, and chemicals). Stalin thought that this success could be reproduced, but at a much faster and efficient rate with planning and communist control. Stalin did actually achieve this, and the soviet bloc enjoyed long periods of economic prosperity. However, Stalin’s adaptation of the model for economic success was too rigid, and as capitalism moved on, providing luxury goods to consumers such as cars, “the Soviets and Eastern Europeans found themselves in the 1980s with the most advanced industries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries- polluting, wasteful, energy intensive, inflexible-in short with massive rust belts” (Chirot, 1991 p.283).
Communism in the Cold War "The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want, they spread and grow in the evil soil of the poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive." as said by Harry S. Truman on march 12, 1947 in The Truman Doctrine. While Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all had the same same Cold War intention of ending communism, their ways of achieving their goal were different.The Cold War was an angry dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union about whether we should spread or contain communism (Ayres 817).
Is it reasonable to blame the breakdown of East-West relations that ultimately led to the cold war, on one or two men, is this rational, but even so, what roles did Stalin and Truman play and where can the blame of this breakdown of alliance and international relations be placed on. Many can argue that in one sense the origins of this breakdown of trust can be traced back to the 1917 Bolshevik revolution which set up the Soviet system - an alternative model of political, economic and social organization which proclaimed itself an enemy of and more significantly, the successor of the capitalist system. Communism was initially viewed by capitalist governments with great suspicion and during the civil war in Russia 1918 several capitalist states aided anti-communist forces and even though they were unsuccessful Stalin was still weary of these capitalist states and believed they still hoped to destroy the USSR. (Lowe, 2008) In many ways Stalin’s paranoia had stemmed from the actions of these capitalist states and it was this paranoia that clouded his senses and led him to make decisions that made Western governments wary of Stalin and the USSR. Roosevelt was keen to encourage closer ties with the USSR and although many Americans were skeptical, Roosevelt worked hard to keep the peace between America and the USSR.
However, the breakdown in relations between the emerging superpowers during the war and the consequences of the disbandment of the Grand Alliance can be interpreted as the start of the Cold War. Tensions during wartime conferences paved the way for post-war conflict and it can be argued that as soon as the common enemy of Hitler was destroyed, the disparity in post-war aims of the superpowers led to the Cold War. The conferences of ‘the Big Thee’ at Yalta and Potsdam produced areas of tension surrounding plans for Germany and Poland, highlighting the USA fear of USSR’s expansion. Therefore Stalin’s policies for these countries can be construed as an attempt to form an ‘Eastern Bloc’, knowing this to be in complete contradiction with Western ideals for a world without spheres of influence. However, there is not much evidence to suggest the USSR’s was pursuing expansionist aims at this point, and in fact was simply securing its borders.
This constant drive to match and even surpass the US led to a serious decrease in spending in the consumer and domestic economy as a whole which greatly impacted the citizens in the USSR. Brezhnev left his successors an
The Cold War, along with attitudes and doctrines formed within it, continues to shape the world, years after its end. The Cold War ended, arguably, because of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, and economic problems left over from older administrations. The Cold War had its origins in the direct aftermath of World War 2, but simply leaving it at that would be too simple. The Cold War began as a result of political tension between the United States and Soviet Russia; the Soviet ideology, as listed in the Communist Manifesto, states that the bourgeoisie, those that own the means of production and the capitalist doctrine as a whole are the enemies of the proletariat. To Marx and Engel, the capitalist system as used during the Industrial Revolution created a class system, which oppressed the proletariat.
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.