The Cold War came to the Olympics in 1980 as the United States led the way in a mass boycott of the Moscow Games The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russia.1980 Summer Olympics
Luzhniki Stadium
Luzhniki Stadium is the national stadium of Russia, located in its capital city, Moscow. The full name of the stadium is Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex. Its total seating capacity of 81,000 makes it the largest football stadium in Russia and one of the largest stadium…
What wars were in the 1980s?
The most notable wars of the decade include: The Cold War (1947–1991) Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) – a war fought between the S oviet Union and the Islamist... Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) – a war fought between the S oviet Union and the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance in... Invasion of Grenada ...
When was the official end of the Cold War?
What year did the Cold War officially end? A Day That Shook The World: Cold War officially ends. On 3 December 1989 the Cold War ‘officially’ ended when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met with US president George Bush aboard a Soviet ship docked at Malta’s Marsaxlokk harbour.
What was the Cold War and why did it happen?
The Cold War was a major part of the second half of the 20th century, as tensions arose between two of the world's biggest superpowers over differences in both ideology and philosophy. Given the name because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two, the USA and USSR, they instead supported major regional conflicts in various proxy wars.
Why was it called the Cold War?
Why Was It Called The Cold War? No fight, no weapons, no conditions, just silence. This war is labeled among liberal parties and communist who uses high intelligences in an attack. They make us of their tactics and spying techniques to learn from an enemy. It is called the cold war since both sides have not fought or neither made peace.
What happened in the 1980's with the Cold War?
Major episodes of the renewed Cold War include a US-led boycott of the Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics following the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1979, and the reciprocal Soviet boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; Soviet deployment of ballistic missiles targeting Western Europe and deployment of ...
What was the Cold War like in the 1980s?
The Cold War from 1979 to 1985 was a late phase of the Cold War marked by a sharp increase in hostility between the Soviet Union and the West. It arose from a strong denunciation of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
What happened in 1981 during the Cold War?
When Ronald Reagan became president in January 1981, such outcomes were inconceivable. The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan, causing President Jimmy Carter to withdraw a strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II) from Senate ratification, boycott the 1980 Olympics Games in Moscow, and ban U.S. grain sales to Moscow.
Why did the Cold War flare up again in the 1980s?
The Second Cold War began to unfold in the late 1970s and continued into the 1980s. It marked the end of Détente, which had produced arms reduction treaties and better relations. 2. Two contributing factors were the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
What major events happened in the 1980s?
Ronald Reagan Elected President. CNN Begins Broadcasting. ... Sandra Day O'Connor First Woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Iranian Hostages Released. ... Falklands War. ... Sally Ride First U.S. Woman Astronaut. ... Macintosh Computer. ... Mikhail Gorbachev Institutes Glasnost and Perestroika in USSR. ... Challenger Explodes. ... Iran-Contra Hearings.More items...
What war happened in 1980?
Iran-Iraq WarIran-Iraq War, (1980–88), prolonged military conflict between Iran and Iraq during the 1980s.
What happened in the year 1980 in the US?
November 4 – 1980 United States presidential election: Republican challenger and former Governor Ronald Reagan of California defeats incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter, exactly one year after the beginning of the Iran hostage crisis.
What big event happened in 1981?
What happened in 1981 Major News Stories include The Aids Virus Identified, Iran Hostage Crisis Ends, Yorkshire Ripper is caught, Post It Notes launched, Riots UK Cities, Anwar Sadat assassinated. one of the most exciting was the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Who was President in 1980 and 1981?
Ronald Reagan, originally an American actor and politician, became the 40th President of the United States serving from 1981 to 1989.
What happened in 1983 during the Cold War?
The 1983 Military Drill That Nearly Sparked Nuclear War With the Soviets. In November 1983, during a particularly tense period in the Cold War, Soviet observers spotted planes carrying what appeared to be warheads taxiing out of their NATO hangars.
What major changes occurred to the Cold War during the 1980s explain how the Cold War came to an end?
During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an end.
When was the Cold War at its hottest?
1962's Cuban Missile Crisis was not the only time the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union almost went hot. 1962's Cuban Missile Crisis was not the only time the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union almost went hot.
What was going on in the Cold War in 1985?
Under the Reagan Doctrine, the Reagan administration began providing military support to anti-communist armed movements in Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua and elsewhere. A major breakthrough came in 1985–87, with the successful negotiation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).
When was the Cold War at its worst?
But now a British popular historian and a veteran American reporter, in separate books, contend that the most dangerous moment of the Cold War occurred in early November 1983, when the Soviets nearly launched a nuclear attack against the West because they thought that NATO was planning a first strike under the cover of ...
What happened in the 1980s in America?
During the 1980s, conservative politics and Reaganomics held sway as the Berlin Wall crumbled, new computer technologies emerged and blockbuster movies and MTV reshaped pop culture.
What major changes occurred to the Cold War during the 1980s explain how the Cold War came to an end?
During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an end.
What was the Cold War?
The Cold War was an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World...
How did the Cold War end?
The Cold War came to a close gradually. The unity in the communist bloc was unraveling throughout the 1960s and ’70s as a split occurred between Ch...
Why was the Cuban missile crisis such an important event in the Cold War?
In the late 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. In 1962 the Soviet Union began...
What was the Cold War timeline?
Cold War timeline: 1980 to 1991. This Cold War timeline contains important dates and events from 1980 to 1991. It has been written and compiled by Alpha History authors. If you would like to suggest an event for inclusion here, please contact Alpha History.
What happened in 1983?
1983. January: Deiter Gerhardt, a former officer in the South African Navy, is arrested for espionage in New York. His Soviet handler, Vitaly Shlykov, is arrested a fortnight later. February 2nd: US president Ronald Reagan hosts a delegation of Afghan mujahideen or freedom fighters in the White House.
What happened in January 20th?
January 20th: George Bush is inaugurated as US president , replacing Ronald Reagan.#N#February 15th: The last Soviet troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan.#N#April 15th: The death of Hu Yaobang, a liberal-reformist official in the Chinese Communist Party. Students respond to Hu’s death with large gatherings in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere.#N#April 26th: The People’s Daily, the official state newspaper of communist China, publishes an editorial condemning the growing student demonstrations. The following day up to 100,000 students march through Beijing to Tiananmen Square.#N#May 2nd: The Hungarian government begins tearing down the barbed wire fence along its border with Austria.#N#May 16th: Mikhail Gorbachev makes a landmark visit to China in an attempt to normalise Sino-Soviet relations. Student gatherings, protests and hunger strikes continue during his visit.#N#May 20th: With student protests and calls for democratic reform growing, the communist government in China declares martial law.#N#June 3rd: Chinese military units are sent into Beijing to clear protestors from Tiananmen Square. Over the next 24 hours between 300 and 3,000 protestors are killed.#N#June 5th: Footage of a lone protestor, standing defiantly in front of a column of tanks in Beijing, is beamed around the world. It becomes an iconic image of protest against communist oppression.#N#June 18th: Poland completes two rounds of democratic elections, the country’s first free elections since World War II. Lech Walesa’s Solidarnosc wins 161 in the Polish lower house and almost all of the seats in its Senate.#N#August 24th: Christian-democratic politician Tadeusz Mazowiecki becomes prime minister of Poland.#N#October 18th: Hungary adopts a new constitution, allowing for multiple political parties and free elections.#N#October 18th: Erich Honecker is replaced as leader of the East German Communist Party.#N#October 25th: Gorbachev repudiates the Brezhnev Doctrine, the idea that Moscow could intervene in Soviet bloc nations if socialism was perceived to be under threat.#N#November 9th: The East German government announces that it will shortly open checkpoints in Berlin. This triggers the storming and eventual fall of the Berlin Wall.#N#November 20th: More than 200,000 Czechoslovakians gather in Prague to protest against the communist government there. Government leaders resign four days later.#N#December 2nd: Mikhail Gorbachev and US president George Bush begin a two-day summit in Malta. At its conclusion, they proclaim a new era of peace.#N#December 9th: Solidarnosc leader Lech Walesa is elected president of Poland.#N#December 25th: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown after 34 years in power. Ceausescu and his wife are swiftly executed.#N#December 29th: Playwright and anti-Soviet dissident Vaclav Havel is elected as the president of Czechoslovakia.
Why did the Goodwill Games happen?
Created by American broadcaster Ted Turner, the Goodwill Games were designed to heal the acrimony created by the 1980 and 1984 Olympic boycotts. October 11th: Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet for a second time, at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. This meeting fails to reach agreement on arms control.
What happened on December 25th?
December 25th: President George Bush delivers a Christmas speech and declares that the Cold War is over. December 25th: Gorbachev resigns as leader of the Soviet Union. December 26th: The Supreme Soviet meets to formally dissolve the Soviet Union. Citation information. Title: “Cold War timeline – 1980 to 1991”.
What did Ronald Reagan call the Soviet Union to do?
March 22nd: Ronald Reagan endorses a joint resolution of Congress, calling on the Soviet Union to “cease its abuses of the basic human rights of its citizens, in particular, the right to freely practice one’s religion and the right to emigrate to another country”.
What was the name of the treaty that ended the Cold War?
Many historians consider this charter to be the de facto peace treaty that ends the Cold War.
What was the Cold War?
The Cold War was waged on political, economic, and propaganda fronts and had only limited recourse to weapons. The term was first used by the English writer George Orwell in an article published in ...
How long did the Cold War last?
It was waged mainly on political, economic, and propaganda fronts and lasted until 1991.
Why were both superpowers wary of using their nuclear weapons against each other?
The conflict showed that both superpowers were wary of using their nuclear weapons against each other for fear of mutual atomic annihilation. The signing of the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty followed in 1963, which banned aboveground nuclear weapons testing.
What was the Cuban missile crisis?
This sparked the Cuban missile crisis (1962), a confrontation that brought the two superpowers to the brink of war before an agreement was reached to withdraw the missiles. Cuban missile crisis. Aerial photograph of Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) Launch Site 1 near San Cristóbal, Cuba, taken on October 25, 1962.
Why did the US and Soviet Union not use nuclear weapons?
The Cuban missile crisis showed that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union were ready to use nuclear weapons for fear of the other’s retaliation (and thus of mutual atomic annihilation). The two superpowers soon signed the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty of 1963, which banned aboveground nuclear weapons testing.
What happened in 1962?
In 1962 the Soviet Union began to secretly install missiles in Cuba to launch attacks on U.S. cities. The confrontation that followed, known as the Cuban missile crisis, brought the two superpowers to the brink of war before an agreement was reached to withdraw the missiles.
What was Gorbachev's reforms?
Gorbachev’s reforms meanwhile weakened his own communist party and allowed power to shift to the constituent governments of the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, giving rise to 15 newly independent nations, including a Russia with an anticommunist leader.
What Happened To America In The Cold War?
Cold War was nearing the end of its existence , with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the death of the Soviet Union in close proximity.
What Was The Cold War And What Happened During This Period?
Cold War refers to a period of tense conflict between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies from 1946 to 1991. Despite the fact that the parties were technically at peace, there were proxy wars, an aggressive arms race, and an attempt to dominate the world through ideology.
What Was The Main Point Of The Cold War?
Cold War was characterized by three main features: 1) the threat of nuclear war, 2) the competition between newly independent nations for loyalty , and 3) the military and economic support of each other’s enemies.
Why Was The Cold War An Important Event In History?
Early in the postwar period, the Cold War was the most important political issue. A long-standing dispute between the Soviet Union and the United States led to the creation of the project. It was believed that reducing trade barriers would boost economic growth at home and abroad , as well as strengthen U.S.-Canada relations. We are friends and allies.
What Was The Cold War And What Events Contributed To It?
Several factors contributed to the outbreak of the Cold War, including tensions between the two nations following World War II, the ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, the development of nuclear weapons, and the fear of communism in the United States.
Why Did The Us Get In The Cold War?
In contrast to communism, democracy was the norm. In response to communism’s threat to world stability and freedom, the United States joined the Cold War. Soviet Union officials believed that they could spread their ideology to as many countries as possible through their efforts.
Why Was This Period Known As The Cold War?
Neither the Soviet Union nor the United States declared war during the Cold War, which was known as the Cold War.
What was the popular culture of the 1980s?
The 1980s: Popular Culture. In some respects, the popular culture of the 1980s reflected the era's political conservatism. For many people, the symbol of the decade was the "yuppie": a baby boomer with a college education, a well-paying job and expensive taste.
How many people rallied in support of the freeze in New York City in 1982?
In 1982, almost a million people rallied in support of the freeze in New York City's Central Park. Many historians believe this was the largest mass demonstration in American history.
What were Reagan's economic policies?
On the domestic front, Reagan’s economic policies initially proved less successful than its partisans had hoped, particularly when it came to a key tenet of the plan: balancing the budget. Huge increases in military spending (during the Reagan administration, Pentagon spending would reach $34 million an hour) were not offset by spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere. By early 1982, the United States was experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression. Nine million people were unemployed in November of that year. Businesses closed, families lost their homes and farmers lost their land. The economy slowly righted itself, however, and “Reaganomics” grew popular again. Even the stock market crash of October 1987 did little to undermine the confidence of middle-class and wealthy Americans in the president’s economic agenda. Many also overlooked the fact that Reagan’s policies created record budget deficits: In his eight years in office, the federal government accumulated more debt than it had in its entire history.
How long did Reagan have a deficit?
Many also overlooked the fact that Reagan’s policies created record budget deficits: In his eight years in office, the federal government accumulated more debt than it had in its entire history. Despite its mixed track record, a majority of Americans still believed in the conservative agenda by the late 1980s.
Why did the White House sell arms to Iran?
In November 1986, it emerged that the White House had secretly sold arms to Iran in an effort to win the freedom of U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and then diverted money from the sales to Nicaraguan rebels known as the Contras. The Iran-Contra affair, as it became known, resulted in the convictions–later reversed–of Reagan’s national security adviser, John Poindexter (1936-), and Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North (1943-), a member of the National Security Council
What was Reagan's campaign promise?
Reagan’s campaign cast a wide net, appealing to conservatives of all stripes with promises of big tax cuts and smaller government. Once he took office, he set about making good on his promises to get the federal government out of Americans’ lives and pocketbooks.
Why did the Sunbelters migrate to the North?
They did so because they had grown tired of the seemingly insurmountable problems facing aging cities, such as overcrowding, pollution and crime.
What was the Cold War?
This is a timeline of the main events of the Cold War, a state of and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union, its allies in the Warsaw Pact and later the People's Republic of China ).
What was the Cold War timeline?
This is a timeline of the main events of the Cold War, a state of and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union, its allies in the Warsaw Pact and later the People's Republic of China ).
How old was Samantha Smith when she was invited to the Soviet Union?
July 7: Ten-year-old Samantha Smith accepts the invitation of Soviet premiere Yuri Andropov and visits the Soviet Union with her parents. Smith had written to Andropov to ask if he would "vote to have a war or not?" Smith's letter, published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda, prompted Andropov to reply and invite the girl to the U.S.S.R. The widely publicized event leads to other Soviet-American cultural exchanges.
What happened in the Gulf of Tonkin incident?
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident leads to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. September 21: Malta becomes independent from the UK. October 14: Leonid Brezhnev succeeds Khrushchev to become General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
What happened in March of Stalin?
March–April: US and Britain outraged as Stalin excludes them from a role in Poland and turns Poland over to a Communist puppet government he controls.
What happened on January 27th?
January 27: The Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for the continued bombing of Indochina.
What did Bernard Baruch coin the term "Cold War" to describe?
April 16: Bernard Baruch, in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coins the term "Cold War" to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
What was the most dangerous year of the Cold War?
1983: The Most Dangerous Year of the Cold War. David Austin Walsh is the editor of the History News Network. Follow him on Twitter @davidastinwalsh. Credit: militarists.ru.
What did the Soviets do in 1983?
Valentin Varennikov, a general in the Soviet Army, noted in his memoirs that in 1983, the Soviet military prepared itself to strike preemptively with nuclear weapons in the event that intelligence of a imminent attack by the United States.
What happened to the 007?
The shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 over Sakhalin Island on September 1, 1983 ratcheted tensions even further. “I think the Soviets genuinely believed it was a spy plane,” Jones said, and to make matters worse the plane carried a sitting (and anticommunist) U.S. congressman.
What was the name of the NATO exercise that simulated a nuclear war with the Soviet Union?
Able Archer was the name of November 1983 NATO exercise that simulated a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The Soviets feared that this was the prelude to an actual U.S. first strike, and prepared to preempt it.
What was the name of the NATO maneuver called when the 83 was able to re-enter the battlefield?
Able Archer 83 came at the tail end of the annual NATO maneuvers, called “ Autumn Forge ,” which simulated a large-scale tank war against the armies of the Warsaw Pact.
When did the Able Archer scare happen?
That's the conclusion of researchers at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which released on May 16 a collection of documents on the 1983 Able Archer war scare, the closest the Cold War came to turning hot since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Who compared Reagan to Hitler?
A 1996 CIA report on the 1983 war scare concluded that the Soviets genuinely feared a pre-emptive nuclear strike from the United States. General Secretary Yuri Andropov “repeatedly compared” Reagan to Hitler, the architect of a devastating surprise attack on the Soviet Union that it barely survived, and told his Politburo colleagues that he was “fanning the flames of war,” an image, the report's author notes dryly, “more sinister than Andropov as a Red Darth Vader.”
1980
- January 4th: The United States halts wheat sales to the Soviet Union, a sanction imposed after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. January 23rd: US president Jimmy Carter promises to respond to any Soviet aggression against American allies in the Middle East. This position becomes known as the Carter Doctrine. April 7th: The US severs diplomatic re...
1981
- January 15th: Pope John Paul II meets with Lech Walesa and other members of the Polish reform group Solidarnosc. January 20th: Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th US president. His inauguration speech focuses mainly on domestic and economic issues. January 20th: After 444 days in captivity, the 52 American civilians held hostage in Iran are released. March 30th: Two m…
1983
- January: Deiter Gerhardt, a former officer in the South African Navy, is arrested for espionage in New York. His Soviet handler, Vitaly Shlykov, is arrested a fortnight later. February 2nd: US president Ronald Reagan hosts a delegation of Afghan mujahideen or freedom fighters in the White House.March 8th: Reagan describes the Soviet Union as an “evil empire”. March 23rd: Rea…
1984
- February 13th: Konstantin Chernenko becomes general secretary of the Soviet Union, following the death of Yuri Andropov. May 13th: A fire sweeps through the Severomorsk naval base in remote northern Russia, burning for four days. It causes a series of munitions blasts that kill as many as 300 people and destroy much of the Soviet Union’s naval missile stockpile. July 28th: T…
1985
- January 20th: Ronald Reagan is sworn in for his second term as US president. February 6th: Reagan announces that his administration will arm and support “freedom fighters” against communist regimes. This becomes known as the Reagan Doctrine. March 11th: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. March 24th: …
1986
- January 28th: The US space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after launch, killing all seven astronauts onboard.February 25th: After years of popular unrest, a series of demonstrations in the Philippines leads to the removal of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. February 25th: Speaking at a Communist Party congress, Mikhail Gorbachev unveils the keywords of his reformist policy: glas…
1987
- January 5th: Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery. Some sections of the media ponder whether Reagan may have to resign from office. March 4th: Reagan addresses the nation on television and denies approving or ordering the sale of arms to Iran, in order to fund the Contras movement in Nicaragua. May 17th: The American frigate USS Stark is attacked by an Iraqi jet, w…
1988
- January 2nd: The Soviet Congress passes the first legislation implementing Gorbachev’s perestroika (economic reforms). February 22nd: A naval clash between US and USSR vessels, after US ships enter Soviet waters in the Crimean Sea. March 24th: A McDonald’s restaurant opens in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the first in a Soviet bloc nation. March 25th: In the Slovakian capi…
1989
- January 20th: George Bush is inaugurated as US president, replacing Ronald Reagan. February 15th: The last Soviet troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan. April 15th: The death of Hu Yaobang, a liberal-reformist official in the Chinese Communist Party. Students respond to Hu’s death with large gatherings in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere. April 26th: The People’s Daily, t…
1990
- January 20th: Soviet troops occupy the Azerbaijani city of Baku after prolonged demonstrations for independence. A total of 130 protestors are killed. January 31st: The first McDonald’s store opens in Moscow. February 7th: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) votes to end the one-party state and allow other parties to participate in elections. March 11th: Lithuania decl…
Overview
The Cold War from 1979 to 1985 was a late phase of the Cold War marked by a sharp increase in hostility between the Soviet Union and the West. It arose from a strong denunciation of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. With the election of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979, and American President Ronald Reagan in 1980, a corresponding change in Western foreign p…
Nuclear buildup (1981–1983)
During the 1970s, the Soviet Union had developed a new class of intermediate range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. By the end of 1979, it deployed 130 SS-20 missiles capable of launching over 390 warheads to the western part of the Soviet Union and to allied Warsaw Pact states. This move set off alarms in the NATO alliance, which was dependent upon tactical nuclear sup…
Prelude: A decade of detente
During the 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union had pursued a policy of détente, whereby both sides trying to improve their geopolitical situation while minimizing the risk of direct war between the superpowers. Extensive trade ties were established between nations of both blocs, to the point that approximately 70 percent of the Soviet Union's grain came from the United States. In 1975, steps to expand political ties between NATO and Soviet-bloc nations (i.e. Ostpolitik) cul…
Collapse of détente
This era of relative cooperation wasn't without conflict. Throughout the era of détente, both sides continued their stockpiling of nuclear weapons, along with delivery systems for those weapons. The emergence of Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs) radically increased both the Soviet Union's and the United States' killing capacity in the event of a nuclear war and increased the possibility of a preventive strike. SALT II was signed in 1979 in an attempt to contai…
Rollback Doctrine
In 1984, journalist Nicholas Lemann interviewed Reagan Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and summarized the strategy of the Reagan administration to roll back the Soviet Union:
Their society is economically weak, and it lacks the wealth, education, and technology to enter the information age. They have thrown everything into military production, and their society is starting to show terrible stress as a result. They can't sustain military production the way we can. Eventu…
Polish Crisis (1980–1981)
In the 1970s, the Polish economy had experienced a period of declining productivity, culminating in the nation's first post-WWII recession in 1979. In 1980, striking workers at the Gdansk Shipyard announced the formation of Solidarity, a non-communist trade union. On August 31, 1980, the Polish government agreed to many of the union's demands, including its legalization, making Solidarity (now 10 million members strong) the first trade union in the Warsaw Pact to not be un…
Third World conflicts
The Middle East saw several conflicts during this era. The Iran-Iraq War, pitted the new Islamic revolutionary government of Iran against the Iraqi Baathist state led by Saddam Hussein. Despite fighting an Iraq that was armed by both the Soviet Union and the West, Iran fought the invaders to a standstill. The war remained a stalemate until 1988, when a status quo ante-bellum cease-fire wa…
1983: The year of crisis
In 1981, the Chairman of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev launched the largest ever Soviet intelligence gathering campaign, Operation RYAN (Russian: Raketno Yadernoye Napadenie (Ракетно ядерное нападение), meaning "nuclear missile attack"). The purpose of this exercise was to deploy operatives to collect as much information as possible on the po…