Download Station 1: Changes in American Foreign Policy

Station 1: Changes in American Foreign Policy
In 1971, while Americans were still fighting in Vietnam, the Cold War showed signs
of a thaw. President Nixon moved to ease world tensions. His first move was to
seek improved relations with the People’s Republic of China (a communist nation
since 1949).
To the surprise of many Americans, Nixon then visited the People’s Republic of
China in 1972. Television cameras captured the President walking along the Great
Wall of China and attending state dinners with Chinese leaders. This visit was a
triumph for Nixon and the start of a new era in relations with China. As tensions
eased, the United States and China established formal diplomatic relations in 1979.
President Nixon followed his visit to China with another historic trip. In May 1972, he became the first
American President to visit the Soviet Union since the beginning of the Cold War. The trip was part of
Nixon’s effort to reduce tensions between the superpowers. This policy was known as détente (day
TAHNT).
Détente eased the Cold War by establishing more trade and other contacts between the
superpowers. It also led them to sign a treaty to limit the number of nuclear warheads and missiles.
The treaty was known as the SALT Agreement. (SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.)
The next two Presidents, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, continued the policy of détente. Trade
between the United States and the Soviet Union increased. Under President Ford, Soviet and
American astronauts conducted a joint space mission. In 1979, President Carter met with Soviet
leader Leonid Brezhnev. They worked out the details of a SALT II Treaty.
Station 2: New Tensions
Détente ended suddenly in 1979. In December, Soviet troops swept into Afghanistan, a
mountainous nation on the Soviet Union’s southern border. Soviet troops were sent there to help a
pro-Soviet government (communist) that had just seized power.
The United States condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
President Carter withdrew the SALT II Treaty from Senate approval
hearings. The United States also refused to let athletes compete in the
1980 summer Olympic Games in Moscow.
Despite worldwide criticism, Soviet troops remained in
Afghanistan for ten years. They suffered heavy losses as
Afghan rebels (the Taliban), supplied by the United States,
battled the communist government. The war in Afghanistan
became so costly for the Soviets that it eventually contributed
to the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 firmly believing that the Soviet Union was “the focus of evil in
the modern world.” He called on Americans to “oppose it with all our might.”
Regan wanted to deal with the Soviets from a position of strength. To achieve this, he persuaded
Congress to increase military spending by more than $100 billion during his first five years in office.
He also called for the development of a new weapons system that he hoped could destroy Soviet
missiles from space. The system was nicknamed Star Wars after a popular movie of the time. Only
the early stages of research were completed.
Station 3: Decline of the Soviet Union
Cracks began to appear in the Soviet empire in the mid-1980s. Economic problems grew in part
because of the huge sums the Soviets were spending on their military. There was little money left for
producing consumer goods. Soviet citizens stood in line for hours waiting for poorly made products.
They complained that the communist system was breaking down. The time was ripe for reform.
In 1986, a new Soviet leader, Mikail Gorbachev, rose to power. He believed that only major
reforms would allow the Soviet system to survive.
Gorbachev backed glasnost, the Russian term for speaking out openly. Glasnost, Gorbachev hoped,
would lead citizens to find solutions to pressing economic and social problems. This new openness
was a break with the past, when any criticism of government policies had quickly been silenced.
Gorbachev realized that he could not solve the Soviet Union’s economic problems without cutting
military spending sharply. To do so, he had to have better relations with the United States.
President Reagan and Gorbachev met a several summit meetings. A summit meeting is a
conference between the highest-ranking officials of different nations. Reagan agreed to these
meetings because he approved of Gorbachev’s new policy of openness.
In 1987, the two leaders signed an arms control pact called the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF)
Treaty. In it, both nations agreed to get rid of their stockpiles of short and medium range missiles.
To prevent cheating, each side would have the right to inspect the other’s missile sites.
Station 4: Communism Falls in Eastern Europe
For more than 50 years, the communist governments of Eastern Europe had banned any open
discussion of political issues. As in the Soviet Union, only one political party, the Communist party,
was allowed to win elections. People were denied many basic rights, such as freedom of speech.
At times, the Soviet Union had used force to maintain its control over the satellite nations. In 1956,
when Hungary had tried to follow its own independent course, the Soviet Union set their Red Army to
crush the revolution. In 1968, Soviet troops marched into Czechoslovakia when a Czech leader tried
to introduce reforms.
By the late 1980s, Eastern European governments could no longer control the rising demands of the
people for democratic and economic reforms. With opposition so widespread, most of those
governments did not dare to use military force to oppose change. By this time the Soviet Union did
not have the power to suppress these protests. It was too busy trying to solve its own problems.
In 1989, Poland held its first free elections in 50 years. Polish voters rejected communist candidates
in favor of those put up by the trade union, Solidarity.
One by one, Communist governments
fell
in
Czechoslovakia,
Hungary,
Bulgaria, and Albania. In Romania, a
violent revolt toppled the country’s
longtime communist dictator. The
people of these Eastern European
nations wanted freedom and finally
stood together in favor of democracy.
Station 5: The Reunification of Germany
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke the people of West Berlin at the base of the
Brandenburg Gate, near the Berlin wall. Due to the amplification system being used, the President's
words could also be heard on the Eastern (Communist-controlled) side of the wall. The address
Reagan delivered that day is considered by many to have affirmed the beginning of the end of the
Cold War and the fall of communism. As a result, President Reagan is often given the credit for
ending the Cold War. Here, at the Berlin Wall, Reagan said:
"General Secretary Gorbachev (Soviet leader), if you seek peace, if you
seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek
liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'"
In East Germany, protests forced the Communists from power. On a November night in 1989,
television news programs carried a startling sight. There were Germans, young and old, swinging
pickaxes and sledgehammers. Bit by bit, they were knocking down the huge concrete wall that had
divided East Berlin from West Berlin for nearly 30 years.
Berliners from both sides of the wall danced, hugged, and kissed. East
Berliners eagerly snatched up maps of West Berlin. For the first time,
many East Berliners would be able to reunite with family and friends
who were on the other side of the wall.
East Germany had built the Berlin Wall to prevent its citizens from
fleeing to the West. The wall had become a symbol of Cold War
divisions. The 1989 “fall” of the Berlin Wall marked the revolutionary
changes throughout the communist world. It also became a symbolic
end to the Cold War.
By 1990, Germany was reunited under one democratic government.
Station 6: The Soviet Union Collapses
The Soviet Union was made up of 15 different republics held together by a strong
central government in Moscow (The Soviet Union’s capital city). Under Soviet rule, the
republics had few freedoms. All important policy decisions were made in Moscow.
By 1990, resentment of Moscow was high. Some Soviet people, including Lithuanians, Latvians, and
Estonians, demanded self-rule. Attempting to quiet the unrest, Gorbachev allowed political parties
to form. For nearly 70 years, the Soviet Union had been a one-party nation.
Some of the new parties openly opposed the Communists. In the months that
followed, republic after republic declared its independence from the Soviet Union. In
late 1991, Gorbachev resigned. By then, the Soviet Union had collapsed. As a
result, American President George H. W. Bush would be in office when the Cold
War officially ended.
Fifteen new nations emerged from the old Soviet Union. Of these,
Russia was the largest and most powerful. Under new Russian President Boris
Yeltsin, Russia began the difficult task of building a new free-market economy.
In a free market, individuals decide what and how much to produce and sell. Under
communism, the government had made such economic decisions.