*ronald reagan
restored americans’ confidence
and pride in themselves and their country.he did this partly be building up the military in a new arms
race with
the soviet union, which reagan called an evil empire.this not only made the us capable of defending
ourselves
and our allies from attack, but it also forced the ussr to spend money to
keep up with
american military spending.the soviet union, however, was not
truly able to
afford this, particularly because of its commitment in afghanistan.
*reagan not only
built new bombers and
missiles, but he promoted the strategic defence initiative (sdi) or
star wars,
a plan for land- and space-based lasers to shoot down enemy missiles,
potentially making the us and our allies safe
from nuclear
attack.
*reagan also funded
anti-communist groups
around the world.he supported the
mujahedeen in afghanistan.he sent troops to invade the caribbeanisland of grenada when pro-communist
forces
overthrew its government.
*he also sent money,
weapons, and advisors to
the anti-communist contras in nicaragua.however, this led to the iran-contra affair, a scandal that
developed
when it was discovered that the us had secretly sold
military
equipment to our enemy iran to get money to
support the
contras.
*reagan also sent the
marines to lebanon to try to stop a
civil war there,
but pulled them out after a suicide bomber drove a truck with
explosives into
their barracks.
*reagan later bombed libya after terrorists
supported by libya bombed a nightclub
in berlin that was popular
with american
soldiers (two of whom were killed in the blast).
*by reagan’s second
term, the soviet union was under enough
pressure from
the west and from its own people to consider reform, partly because it
had a
new, young leader, mikhail gorbachev.
*gorbachev began
policies of perestroika (reform) and glasnost
(openness—limited freedom of
the press).he did this partly because
he truly believed that the soviet government was not taking care of its
people
(especially its farmers) as it should, but also because the soviet
economy was
falling apart.
*between 1985 and
1989, reagan and gorbachev
met four times.together they worked out
the strategic arms reduction treaty (start) which would reduce the
number of
nuclear weapons each country owned.
*in 1987, ronald
reagan visited berlin, and gave a speech
in front of
the berlin wall.although he praised
gorbachev’s reforms, he said they had not gone far enough and directly
addressed the soviet leader:'mr
gorbachev, tear down this wall!'
*as soviet citizens
began to experience some
freedom and to have more exposure to the luxuries of the west (like
levi's
jeans, pepsi-cola, and mcdonald's) they wanted reform to come even
faster than
the government was allowing it to, even though gorbachev pulled soviet
troops
out of afghanistan in 1989.
*the soviet union's satellite
countries began to
demand greater freedom, too.
*in 1989, hungary elected a
non-communist
government and opened its border with austria, and soon people
from all over eastern europe, especially east germany, went to hungary, then austria, then west germany or elsewhere in europe.
*in east germany pressure for reform
led to
demands to allow free travel between east and west berlin, and when the
government agreed
(but did not specify how it would work) jubilant crowds took matters
into their
own hands. the flooded the checkpoints on 9 november, 1989,
and within days, began tearing down the wall. on 3 october, 1990,
germany was re-unified.
*the other communist
countries of europe also overthrew their
communist
governments between 1989 and 1991, and czechoslovakia and yugoslavia even broke up into
different
countries.czechoslovakia did so peacefully,
but yugoslavia broke up during a
civil war
characterised by ethnic cleansing by most sides.
*on the other hand,
demonstrations in tiananmen square in beijing in 1989 were
brutally crushed by
the chinese government.
*in august 1991,
hard-line politicians and
military officers in the soviet union attempted a coup,
arresting gorbachev.
they did not have the support of the people or many members of the
government,
and the president of the russiansovietfederativesocialistrepublic (and former mayor of
moscow) boris yeltsin led
opposition to
the coup, which quickly collapsed. gorbachev was released, but
had lost
his authority.
*in august and september, 1991, all the republics of the union of soviet
socialist republics (except russia, although it also
considered it)
declared independence from the ussr. on christmas
day, 1991,
gorbachev resigned. on the 26th, the ussr dissolved.
*boris yeltsin went on the serve as president of russia until 1999, during
which time he
oversaw democratisation, economic liberalisation, and friendship with europe and the united states, even supporting the
us in the 1991 war in iraq.
*ronald reagan is
generally given credit for
the collapse of the soviet union.his consistent support of anti-communist
groups and his military spending was too much for the ussr to keep up with.
*by the time the soviet union fell, george h. w.
bush, reagan’s
vice-president, had become president of the united states.
*it seemed a hopeful
time:not only was communism was
collapsing around
the world, but latin american countries were developing more democratic
governments (although in panama this only happened after bush sent
12,000
troops to overthrow dictator manuel noriega), and south africa ended
its policy
of apartheid, allowing black south
africans to vote (in 1994 they elected nelson mandela, the nation’s
first black
president).
*even a major crisis
seemed hopeful, as both
western and eastern european countries (including russia) allied with
middle-eastern
countries (both moslem countries and israel) in a us led coalition to
defend kuwait.
*in 1990, iraq invaded kuwait, which it had once
owned, and
wanted back. in 1991, a coalition of 34 nations with a un mandate
threw
them out of kuwait and invaded iraq, but did not
overthrow iraq’s dictator, saddam
hussein.
however, an embargo was imposed, and large portions of northern and
southern
iraq were declared ‘no-fly zones’ where iraq could not send
planes. this
let the kurds become fairly independent.
*following the
persian gulf war, president
bush was popular.however, saddam hussein
continued to threaten to disrupt the middle east.the american economy also suffered a recession.furthermore, bush tried to reverse america’s budget deficit,
but had to
raise taxes to do it, breaking one of his promises in the 1988 election.all these things would work against bush when
he ran for re-election in 1992.