The Cold War 1960-1990
Kennedy and the Cold War
- "flexible response" -- Kennedy developed conventional military strategies to deal with difficult challenges around the
world.
-Khrushchev: "Soviets would back wars of liberation" in third world countries.
-.During presidential election of 1960, Kennedy had criticized Eisenhower for allowing a "missile gap" that favored the
Soviets.
- When JFK became president, he learned that the gap was actually in favor of the US; yet he continued the largest
peacetime military buildup in history.
-Kennedy ordered buildup of conventional armed forces to fight localized wars in the Third World.
- Replaced Ike’s heavy reliance on nuclear weapons.
-Set up Green Berets (elite commando force)
- Built up nuclear arsenal for 2nd strike capability.
Bay of Pigs
-Early 1860, Eisenhower authorized CIA to organize, train, and arm in Central America a brigade of 1,400 Cuban exiles for
an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro.
-Invaders would presumably trigger a popular uprising in Cuba
-JFK continued the plan
-In April 1961, Bay of Pigs invasion pinned down and forced to surrender
- Kennedy had decided a day earlier against direct U.S. intervention as he did not want to spark an international
diplomatic crisis.
-Some 1,189 men were captured, 400 killed, only 14 exiles rescued
- Cuban people did not support the invasion
-Kennedy publicly took full responsibility on national TV for the ill-conceived mission.
- Privately Kennedy blamed the CIA for faulty information
-Significance: brought USSR and Cuba closer together in planning for defense of a future U.S. invasion.
-Operation Mongoose
- CIA-backed plan to overthrow and assassinate Fidel Castro
- Ultimately failed and abandoned after Cuban Missile Crisis.
Peace Corps – one of Kennedy’s most popular programs
-Est. in 1961, sent young volunteers (doctors, lawyers and engineers) to third world countries to contribute their skills in
locally sponsored projects to improve economic stagnation, poor health and inadequate education.
-Alternative to military containment of communism.
- By 1966, 15,000 volunteers served in 46 countries but were often overwhelmed.
Alliance for Progress
-1961, JFK gave $20 billion in aid to Latin America ("Latin American Marshall Plan")
-Primary goal was to help Latin American countries to close the gap between rich and poor thus quieting communist
sympathies.
-Result: Little positive impact on Latin America’s social problems.
Berlin Wall
-1949-1961 -- Thousands of East Germans flee to West Berlin.
-Krushchev delivered new ultimatum on Berlin; saw U.S. weakness in Bay of Pigs
- USSR would give Berlin to East Germany, stripping western access to Berlin.
- Kennedy: US would not abandon West Berlin
-USSR announced increase in defense; Kennedy asked for a $3.2 billion increase as well.
- August, 1961 -- Soviet Union builds wall separating West Berlin from the rest of Berlin and East Germany almost
overnight.
- Purpose: Stem the flow of 100,000 people leaving East Berlin
-Kennedy calls up 1,500 US reserves to reinforce West German garrisons.
- On personal trip to Berlin: "Ich bin eine Berliner" ("I am a Berliner")
-Tensions eased as treaty not signed between USSR and East Germany
- Air and land routes to West Berlin were kept open.
-Wall remained until November, 1989
Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962)
-Khrushchev began placing nuclear weapons in Cuba, just 90 miles off Florida coast in October 1962.
- Soviets intended to use weapons to force U.S. into backing down on Berlin, Cuba, and other troubled areas.
-Only the Pacific Northwest was out of range from the Soviet missiles.
-Oct. 14, U.S. aerial photographs revealed Russians were secretly and speedily installing nuclear missiles.
-Warning of missile attack would shrink from 30 minutes to 2 minutes
- U.S. unaware that tactical nuclear missiles were also in Cuba.
- Designed to destroy invading armies.
-Soviets also had nuclear cruise missiles to destroy U.S. Navy near Cuba.
- October 22, JFK ordered a naval "quarantine" of Cuba and demanded immediate removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.
-Kennedy also stated any attack by Cuba on US or any other Latin American country would result in a full
retaliatory response on the Soviet Union.
- Organization of American States had given Kennedy their full support.
-Kennedy rejected "surgical" bombing strikes against missile launching sites fearing it might mean war; no
guarantees that all missiles would be hit.
-Also rejected a U.S. invasion of Cuba (many in cabinet & military favored this)
-Unbeknownst to Kennedy, Soviet tactical nuclear weapons in Cuba could have destroyed invading
American army.
-Had US invaded, WWIII would most likely have begun.
- Kennedy made the announcement on national television; Americans shocked
-All US forces put on full alert.
- For a week, world watched as the Soviet ship carrying missiles steamed toward Cuba.
-Any U.S. attack would trigger war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
-October 24, 16 Soviet ships stopped before they reached the blockade
- October 26, Krushchev agreed to remove missiles if U.S. removed its missiles from Turkey and vowed not to attack Cuba.
-This agreement publicly favored Kennedy as the U.S. quietly pulled its Turkish missiles out 6 months later.
-Agreement can be seen as a victory for Khrushchev: he saved Cuba and got U.S. missiles removed from Turkey.
New spirit of cooperation
-Kennedy and Khrushchev realized they had come dangerously close to nuclear war and had to work to prevent that likely
from ever again occurring.
- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (July, 1963)
- Banned the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons: land, sea, and outer space.
- Khrushchev refused on-site inspections.
- Did not reduce stockpiles
-Signed by all major powers except France and China.
- JFK considered the treaty his greatest achievement
-Hot-line installed with 24-hour access between Moscow and Washington.
Johnson – Cold War Items Other Than Vietnam
-Intervention into the Dominican Republic
- After a revolt by followers of deposed popular leader Juan Bosch , removed by military coup on 25 Sept 1963, the
US intervened on 27 April into the Dominican Republic to evacuate US civilians
-22,000 Marines were in the Dominican Republic by 17 May.
- Declaring that the revolt in the Dominican Republic was led by a "band of Communist conspirators," the Johnson
Doctrine was enunciated which again justified US intervention into Latin American countries
-Domestic revolution in the Western Hemisphere ceased to be purely local concerns when the object of revolution
was to establish a Communist dictatorship
- Aug 1965 - OAS intervention resulted in a provisional government which conducted free elections, in which
Joaquin Balaguer was elected president.
-Outer Space Treaty Jan 1967
-Set up principles for the peaceful exploration of space and banned weapons of mass destruction, weapons tests and
military bases in outer space.
-Signed by the US, USSR, Britain and 57 other nations and unanimously approved by the US Senate in April.
-Six-Day War June 1967
-War broke out between the Arab states and Israel after UN peace keeping forces were removed and the Port of
Aqaba was closed to Israeli shipping.
-The UN Security Council called for a cease fire, which occurred after Israel was within twelve miles of Syria and
had seized Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and Jordan's West bank, including
Old Jerusalem.
-Soviet efforts in the UN to have Israel condemned as the aggressor were consistently blocked by the US
-The US replaced France as Israel's chief supplier of sophisticated weaponry
-Seizure of the Pueblo 1968
- 23 Jan - a US naval intelligence-gathering vessel was captured by the North Koreans, claimed it was in Korean
territorial waters
- Johnson activated 14,000 reservists while negotiations were held
-22 Dec - North Korea releasing 82 crew members and one body, kept the ship
-Johnson's focus on Vietnam, especially during the Tet Offensive, kept him from responding too aggressively
against the North Koreans at this time.
Cold War Under Nixon
- Detente: shift in U.S. policy toward communism
-Sec. of State Henry Kissinger traveled to China and the Soviet Union for secret sessions to plan summit meetings
with the communists.
-Nixon believed USSR and China clashing over their interpretations of Marxism could give U.S. opportunity to play
off one against the other.
- Nixon also hoped to gain their aid in pressuring North Vietnam into peace.
- Nixon and Kissinger’s policies
- realpolitik: Nation should pursue policies and make alliances based on its national interests rather than on any
particular view of the world.
-Balance of power -- "It will be a safer world and a better world if we have a strong, healthy, United States, Europe,
Soviet Union, China, Japan -- each balancing the other." -- Nixon in 1971
- détente was the key to this balance.
China visit, 1972
1. February 1972, Nixon and Kissinger went to China to meet with Mao Zedong and his associates.
2. Recognition of China
-U.S. agreed to support China’s admission to the United Nations and to pursue economic and cultural exchanges.
-Reversed U.S. policy of not recognizing the Chinese revolution in 1949.
- China officially recognized by U.S. in 1979.
Soviet Union and détente
1. Czechoslovakia invaded (1968) by Soviets seeking to squash student reform movement.
- Czechoslovakia became one of strictest govt’s in E. Europe for two decades.
-U.S., preoccupied with Vietnam, could do little to aid Czech reformers
2. Nixon’s Moscow visit -- May 1972, Nixon played his "China card" with the Kremlin.
-Soviets wanted U.S. foodstuffs and feared intensified rivalry with a US-backed China.
- Chairman Leonoid Brezhnev approached Nixon about nuclear reduction talks.
- Nixon flew to Russia to sign the historic arms treaty.
-Nixon’s visit ushered in an era of relaxed tensions called détente.
- Policy sought to establish rules to govern the rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and China.
- Resulted in several significant agreements.
- Agreements significant as they were made before US withdrew from Vietnam.
SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) signed in May, 1972.
-U.S. and USSR agreed to stop making nuclear ballistic missiles and to reduce the number of antiballistic missiles to 200 for
each power.
- Treaties moot by U.S. development of "MIRVs" (Multiple Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicles) -- 1 missile could
carry many warheads
-Both U.S. and Soviets had nearly 20,000 warheads by 1990s!
- Grain deal of 1972 -- 3-year arrangement by which the U.S. agreed to sell at least $750 million worth of wheat, corn, and
other cereals to the Soviet Union.
Détente evaluated
-Successful overall as U.S. checkmated and co-opted the two great Communist powers into helping end the
Vietnam War.
-Did not end the arms race
Energy Crisis, 1973 (sometimes called "Oil Crisis")
-Yom Kippur War of 1973 resulted in bitterness among Arabs toward Western nations for their support of Israel.
-Arab Oil Embargo
-Arab states established an oil boycott to push the Western nations into forcing Israel to withdraw from
lands controlled since the "Six Day War" of 1967
-Kissinger negotiated withdrawal of Israel west of the Suez Canal and the Arabs lifted their boycott.
- OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) inc. Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran,
raised the price of oil from about $3 to $11.65/ barrel in an attempt to force U.S. to recognize the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) and support other Arab demands.
-U.S. gas prices doubled and inflation shot above 10%.
-Nixon refused to ration gasoline and an acute gasoline shortage ensued.
Cold War under Ford
Helsinki Conference (July, 1975) -- 34 countries present
-One group of agreements officially ended World War II by finally legitimizing the Soviet-dictated boundaries of
Poland and other East European countries.
- In return, Soviets guaranteed more liberal exchanges of people and information between East and West and the
protection of certain basic "human rights."
- Yet, the Soviets reneged on their pledges.
- U.S. angry that USSR continued to send huge quantities of arms and military technicians to pro-Communist forces
around the world.
- Ford maintained policy of détente but U.S. and USSR relations were deteriorating.
South Vietnam (Saigon) fell to North Vietnam in April 1975
- Ford had failed to get from Congress approval to provide more arms for South Vietnam.
-To many Americans it appeared U.S. involvement in Vietnam had been tragically in vain.
The Mayaguez
- May 12, 1975, Cambodia, seized by communists 2 weeks earlier, seized the American merchant ship Mayaguez in
the Gulf of Siam.
-After demanding the ship and crew be freed, Ford ordered a Marine assault on Tang Island, where the ship had
been taken.
-Ship and crew of 39 released but 38 Marines were killed.
Foreign policy under Carter
- Humanitarian diplomacy -- sought to base foreign policy on human rights but was criticized for inconsistency and lack of
attention to American interests.
-Verbally lashed out at Cuba and Uganda for human rights violations.
-Cut foreign aid to Uruguay, Argentina, and Ethiopia.
-Championed black majority in South Africa and denounced Apartheid.
- Did not punish South Korea or Philippines -- too vital to U.S. security.
- Some saw this as hypocritical.
-Humanitarian diplomacy ultimately ineffective.
Panama Canal treaty: Provided for transfer of ownership of the Canal to Panama in 1999 and guaranteed its neutrality.
Camp David Accords (September 17, 1978) -- perhaps Carter's greatest accomplishment
-Another conflict imminent between Egypt and Israel.
-Carter invited President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel to a summit
conference at Camp David.
-After 13 days, Carter persuaded them to sign an accord that seemed to place the two countries on a solid road
toward peace.
- Palestinian Liberation Front (PLO) led by Yasser Arafat would use terrorism to protest the existence of Israel.
-Sadat eventually assassinated by Muslim extremists.
Recognition of China
1. Carter ended official recognition of Taiwan and in 1979 recognized the People’s Republic of China.
2. Conservatives called the decision a "sell out"
3. UN had recognized Communist China in 1972 as a member of UN Security Council
Cold War politics
-SALT II
- SALT I treaty due to expire in late 1977.
- Carter called for a renewing of the SALT accords and extending them to include real reductions
in nuclear armaments.
-1979, Carter signed SALT II with the USSR.
- Not ratified by the Senate in light of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
- Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (end of détente) -- December 1979
-Carter’s proclaimed U.S. would "use any means necessary, including force," to protect the Persian Gulf
against Soviet aggression.
-Stopped shipments of grain and certain advanced technology to the USSR
- Withdrew from SALT II from the senate
-Boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics held in Moscow.
- In retaliation, Moscow boycotted 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
-Soviets met stiff resistance in Afghanistan and the war became "Russia’s Vietnam"; Soviet forces pulled
out a decade later
Iran Hostage Crisis: biggest crisis of Carter's presidency and cost him election of 1980.
1. The Iranian Revolution
- In 1978, a revolution forced the Shah of Iran to flee the country.
-Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a religious leader, became Iran’s leader.
- Reversed many of Shah’s western reforms and established conservative Islamic social order.
- Revolutionaries called the U.S. "the Great Satan" for its support of money and arms to the Shah of Iran.
- CIA had put the Shah in power in 1953 after it overthrew Moussadegh supported the Shah’s
regime until his ouster.
2. American hostages
-Carter allowed the Shah to come to the U.S. for medical treatment in Oct. 1979 after Shah was in exile.
-In response, about 400 Iranians (many of them students) broke into the U.S.
embassy in Tehran on
November 4, taking the occupants captive.
- Demanded Shah be returned to Iran for trial and that his wealth be confiscated and given to Iran.
-Carter froze Iranian assets in the U.S. and est. a trade embargo against Iran.
- Iranians eventually freed the black and women hostages but kept 52 others.
- April 1980, Carter ordered a Marine rescue attempt but it failed after several helicopters broke down and
another crashed, killing 8 men.
- Carter perceived as weak, indecisive, and ineffective and suffered for it in the 1980 elections.
3. Release of the hostages after 444 days.
-After extensive negotiations with Iran Carter released Iranian assets and the hostages were
freed on January 20, 1980.
- As a final insult to Carter, hostages were released after Reagan took his inaugural oath that Carter could
not solve the crisis during his presidency.
Reagan and the Cold War
-Reagan’s early rhetoric vis-à-vis Soviet Union harsh.
-U.S. concerned about Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
-Sought to deal with Soviets from a position of strength by embarking on a massive new round to the arms
race.
- American’s could better bear the burden of the expense while the Soviets couldn’t.
-October 1981, Reagan seemed to endorse the concept that the U.S. might fight the Soviets in a "limited"
nuclear war on European soil.
- Western Europeans horrified
- Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) -- "Star Wars"
- March 1983, Reagan announced his intention to pursue a high-technology missile-defense system.
- Plan called for orbiting battle stations in space that could fire laser beams or other
forms of concentrated energy to vaporize intercontinental missiles on lift-off.
- Reagan claimed SDI offered a nuclear umbrella over American cities.
-Most scientists viewed SDI as impossible and it became the cause of much ridicule
in the scientific community.
- Diplomatically, Reagan sought to use SDI to scare the Soviets.
-NUTS vs. MAD
- SDI upset four decades of strategic thinking about nuclear weapons.
- Nuclear Utilization Theory (NUTs) advocated the winning of a nuclear war.
- Reagan’s staff drew up estimates of so-called reasonable losses in the event of a nuclear war -some as high as 40%.
-Hitherto, Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), had assured a "balance of terror" for 4 decades.
-Reagan’s dramatic increase in defense spending placed enormous pressures on the Soviet economy.
-When Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he would try to reform the Soviet system rather than out
compete the U.S.
-Some historians today credit Reagan's aggressive policies as winning the Cold War and forcing the
disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
- "Solidarity" movement in Poland (1982) sought reforms but was ultimately stopped Polish military that was
intimidated by Soviets to restore order.
-Reagan imposed economic sanctions on Poland and Russia.
- U.S. grain sales not cut off since it would hurt U.S. farmers.
- KAL 007, September 1983
- Soviets blew from the sky a Korean airliner carrying hundreds of civilians including many Americans.
-Plane had accidentally veered into Soviet airspace.
-By end of 1983, all arms-control negotiations with Russians were broken off.
- "Evil Empire" speech -- Reagan called the USSR "the evil empire" and the "focus of evil in the modern
world."
- Justified his military build-up as necessary to thwart aggressive Soviets.
-Middle East foreign policy challenges
- Lebanon
- Reagan sent Marines to Lebanon in 1983 as part of an international peacekeeping force after
Israeli attacks against Palestinian strongholds in Lebanon caused chaos.
- October 23, 1983, a suicide bomber crashed his truck into a U.S. Marine barracks killing 241
Marines.
- Reagan soon pulled remaining American troops while suffering no political damage
from the attack.
-Opponents called him a "Teflon president" to whom nothing hurtful could stick.
-Bombing of Libya
- Reagan ordered the bombing of Libya in 1986 in retaliation for an alleged Libyan-sponsored
bombing of a West Berlin discotheque that killed a U.S. serviceman.
-Col. Mommar Qaddafi had long been a sponsor for terrorism against the West.
- Iran-Iraq War
- U.S. backed Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein as Iran and the U.S. had become bitter
enemies since 1979 Iranian Revolution.
-Western Hemisphere foreign policy challenges
-Nicaragua
- "Sandanistas" were socialist revolutionaries who made practice condemning capitalism and U.S.
policies in Latin America; supported by Cuba.
- Reagan accused Sandanistas of turning their country into a forward base for Soviet and Cuban
military penetration of all of Central America.
- Reagan sent covert aid including CIA-led mining of harbors to the "contra" rebels ("freedom
fighters") opposing the anti-U.S. gov’t in Nicaragua.
- Resulted in the Iran-Contra Scandal
- El Salvador
- Reagan sent military "advisors" to prop up pro-U.S. (anti-communist) gov’t of El Salvador as
well as gaining congressional approval for $5 billion in aid.
-Public opinion soured after news of gov’t "death squads" eliminating hundreds, perhaps
thousands of opposition.
-Grenada
- In 1983, Reagan sends 6,000 troops to tiny Grenada in the Caribbean where a military coup had
killed the prime minister and brought a Marxist regime to power.
- U.S. forces successfully overran the island
The End of the Cold War
- Mikhail Gorbachev
1. 1985, Gorbachev became a reform-minded leader of the Soviet Union.
- Allowed for free-speech, capitalist economic reforms, and some democracy.
2. Gorbachev courts the West
- Stated Soviets would cease deployment of intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) targeted on Western
Europe if the U.S. agreed to their elimination.
3. INF Treaty signed in Washington, D.C. in December 1987 (after 2 years of negotiations)
-All intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe banned.
-Significant break through in the Cold War.
-Reagan & Gorbachev: "Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought"
-"Iron Curtain" fell in 1989
1. Costs of maintaining satellite countries, both politically and economically, were too much of a burden for the
Soviets too handle.
- Gorbachev's political reforms opened the floodgates for the democratization of Eastern Europe and the
decline of Soviet influence.
2. Solidarity prevails in Poland in August 1989
- Wave of freedom spread through eastern Europe.
3. Hungary in October
4. Berlin Wall torn down in November; Germany reunited in October 1990
5. Bulgaria in November
6. Czechoslovakia ("the velvet revolution") in December
7. Romania in December (most violent of the 1989 European revolutions)
-Reduction of nuclear weapons
1. President George Bush & Gorbachev agree to dramatic cutbacks in ICBMs in 1990s.
2. START -- strategic arms reduction treaty.
-Would cut 10% of U.S. nuclear weapons and 25% of Soviet nukes and limit ICBM warheads to 1,100
each.
-Later treaty called for 50% reductions within a few years.
3. American analysts began discussing possible "peace dividend" which could be used for social programs,
rebuilding infrastructure, and reduction of national debt.
Fall of the Soviet Union (December 25, 1991) resulted in end of Cold War