The Development of the Cold War

END OF COLD WAR

Seminar 12 : Decline of Soviet Union
and shifts in Soviet foreign policy
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THE RISE OF MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Who is Gorbachev?

Radical.

Inherited a Soviet system in deterioration.

“We can’t go on living like this.” -

Gorbachev

Past: Change usually starts from the top.

Gorby: Had to inspire the people.

Most prominent of the generation of

democratically minded reformers.

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THE RISE OF MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Soviet Union inherited by Gorbachev

Depict what you think was the state of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

For example, the economic and political systems, relationship with the West, etc.

THE RISE OF MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Gorbachev and his generation

Old Bolsheviks Gorby’s Generation

1940s: grew up in a period of

WWI 1914-1917: 10 million
peace, most educated
casualties
generation

1917-1918: Bolshevik 1960s: Khrushchev’s attempts at

Revolution improving relations

USSR to send the first man to

1920s: Famines
space

1970s/80s: diversion of wealth,

Stalin’s purges
brain & manpower into arms race

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SHIFTS IN IDEOLOGICAL THINKING

3.4.2 Gorbachev’s ‘New Thinking’ in foreign affairs

Gorbachev set out to end the Cold War:

Concluded that the Soviet defence burden crippled the USSR and impeded his domestic reforms.

Peaceful external environment as a necessary condition for reform.

Believed that superpower rivalry was detrimental to humankind.

Novoe Myshlenie ‘New Thinking’:

Remove ideology from foreign policy.

Conciliation with the West.

Global interdependence and collective solutions to common problems.

Fundamental changes in Soviet foreign policy:

Ending the nuclear arms race.

Withdrawing from superpower rivalry in the Third World.

Loosening the Soviet control over Eastern Europe.

SUPERPOWER RIVALRY TO COOPERATION

3.4.3 Summit diplomacy and end of nuclear arms race

Initiative to end the nuclear arms race:

Gorbachev introduced the idea of “reasonable sufficiency.”

Sought to end the arms race and begin disarmament.

Initiatives towards nuclear disarmament:

He proposed unilateral concessions.

April 1985: ceased further deployments of SS-20s in Europe.

August 1985: announced a moratorium on nuclear testing and

offered to extend it indefinitely if the US followed suit.

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SUPERPOWER RIVALRY TO COOPERATION

3.4.3 Summit diplomacy and end of nuclear arms race

Geneva Summit 1985 Reykjavík Summit 1986

Washington Summit 1987 7 Moscow Summit 1988

SUPERPOWER RIVALRY TO COOPERATION

3.4.3 Summit diplomacy and end of nuclear arms race

Geneva Summit (Nov 1985)

Both leaders affirmed their desire for a world free from the threat of nuclear war, but deadlock
due to SDI.

Revkjavik Summit (1986)

Gorbachev offered comprehensive concessions, including the removal of all SS-20s from
Europe.

But Reagan’s commitment to the SDI again derailed agreement.

Post-Revjavik

Gorbachev discarded mutual agreement on SDI as a prerequisite for disarmament talks.

Feb 1987: he accepted the “zero option” that Reagan offered for disarmament talks.

April 1987: Proposed the “double zero option” to eliminate not just IRBMs but also short-range
missiles.
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SUPERPOWER RIVALRY TO COOPERATION

3.4.3 Summit diplomacy and end of nuclear arms race

Washington Summit (1987)

Dec 1987: both superpowers signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty
(INF) at the Washington Summit and reversed the nuclear arms race.

This marked the first success of Gorbachev’s ‘New Thinking’.

Moscow Summit (1988)

Finalised the INF Treaty.

Discussed bilateral issues in Central America, Southern Africa, the Middle East
and the pending withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START)

Impasse since 1982 due to disagreements over SDI.

July 1991: Gorbachev and Bush signed START that eliminated large numbers
of ICBMs.
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SUPERPOWER RIVALRY TO COOPERATION

3.4.3 Summit diplomacy and end of nuclear arms race

The INF Treaty prohibited all U.S.

and Soviet missiles with ranges
between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.
The official figures above show
missiles deployed November 1,
1987, shortly before the INF Treaty
was signed. The treaty also required
destruction of 430 U.S. missiles and
979 Soviet missiles which were in
storage or otherwise not deployed.
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SHIFT IN IDEOLOGICAL THINKING

Gorbachev’s speech at the United Nations

“The compelling necessity of the principle of freedom of choice is also clear
to us. The failure to recognize this, to recognize it, is fraught with very dire
consequences, consequences for world peace. Denying that right to the
peoples, no matter what the pretext, no matter what the words are used to
conceal it, means infringing upon even the unstable balance that is, has been
possible to achieve…

The de-ideologization of interstate relations has become a demand of the

new stage. We are not giving up our convictions, philosophy, or traditions.
Neither are we calling on anyone else to give up theirs. Yet we are not going
to shut ourselves up within the range of our values. That would lead to
spiritual impoverishment, for it would mean renouncing so powerful a source
of development as sharing all the original things created independently by
each nation. In the course of such sharing, each should prove the advantages Gorbachev addressed the United Nations
of his own system, his own way of life and values, but not through words or General Assembly on 7 December 1988
propaganda alone, but through real deeds as well. That is, indeed, an honest
struggle of ideology, but it must not be carried over into mutual relations
between states.”
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SHIFT IN IDEOLOGICAL THINKING

Gorbachev’s speech at the United Nations

“Today I can inform you of the following: The Soviet Union has made a
decision on reducing its armed forces. In the next two years, their numerical
strength will be reduced by 500,000 persons, and the volume of conventional
arms will also be cut considerably. These reductions will be made on a
unilateral basis, unconnected with negotiations on the mandate for the
Vienna meeting. By agreement with our allies in the Warsaw Pact, we have
made the decision to withdraw six tank divisions from the GDR,
Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and to disband them by 1991. Assault landing
formations and units, and a number of others, including assault river-crossing
forces, with their armaments and combat equipment, will also be withdrawn
from the groups of Soviet forces situated in those countries. The Soviet
forces situated in those countries will be cut by 50,000 persons, and their
arms by 5,000 tanks. All remaining Soviet divisions on the territory of our Gorbachev addressed the United Nations
General Assembly on 7 December 1988
allies will be reorganized. They will be given a different structure from today’s
which will become unambiguously defensive, after the removal of a large
number of their tanks. […]
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SHIFT IN IDEOLOGICAL THINKING

Gorbachev’s speech at the United Nations

Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union will not

get involved within the politics in Eastern Europe.

This announcement would pave the way for the

1989 revolutions.

He declared that ideology had no place in

international affairs.

He called for the ‘freedom of choice’ for all nations,

adding that the use of force must be renounced.

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CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING

Eastern Europe vs the Soviet Union

Eastern Europe (Warsaw Pact

allies)
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.
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ENDING BLOC DIVISION - THE FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN

3.4.6 Removal of Soviet control in Eastern Europe

July 1989: announced the Sinatra Doctrine.

Offered satellite states in Eastern Europe the right to choose their own path.

Departed from the Brezhnev Doctrine. What is Brezhnev Doctrine?

But Gorbachev assumed that the Eastern Europeans would not abandon socialism.

1989: disintegration or dramatic transformation of communist regimes in Eastern

Europe.

Lack of political legitimacy of communist regimes and widespread economic

problems drove change.

Dual forces: pressure from ‘people power’ and reforms from the top that were
modelled after Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika.
Why did the communist regimes in
EE lack political legitimacy?
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ENDING BLOC DIVISION - THE FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN

3.4.5 Withdrawal of USSR from the Third World

Gorbachev disengaged the Soviet Union

from its occupation of Afghanistan.

Stopped supplying weapons to its Central

American clients.

Worked with the US in mediating the

withdrawal of foreign forces.

Pressured Vietnam to withdraw its troops

from Cambodia, phased out Soviet military
aid and withdrew all Soviet forces.
Soviet Army soldiers wave their hands as their last detachment
crosses a bridge on the border between Afghanistan and Soviet
Uzbekistan, Feb. 15, 1989.

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SUMMARY: PLEASE FILL IN THE TABLE AS WE MOVE ALONG THE LECTURE

How did Gorbachev end the Cold War?

Eastern Europe Nuclear Arms Race Third World Rivalry

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