Cold War

Nikita Khrushchev

De-Stalinization and Coexistence

• Admitted and rejected Stalin's past brutality
• Gosplan - Promised to shift production to consumer goods
• Agreed to Austrian Independence

Escalating Tension

• 1956: Warsaw Pact and Soviet Invasion of Hungary
• 1958-61: Berlin Ultimatum and Construction of the Berlin Wall
• 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

NATO and Warsaw Pact

Fragmentation

• Sino-Soviet Split
• Non-Aligned Nations
• Prague Spring and invasion of Czechoslovakia sparks protest

Detente

Ostpolitik

Detente

• Nixon visits China and Moscow
• Arms Control - SALT I
• Helsinki Accords - human rights within the Eastern Bloc

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The Second Cold War

Escalation

• 1978: Intervention by US and USSR in Afghanistan
• 1979: Iranian Revolution and KGB in Nicaragua

Cold Warriors

Intervention and Military Spending

• Between 1980-1985 defense spending doubled
• Rhetoric focused on inherent evil of the ideology of Communism
• Strategic Defense Initiative - Star Wars Defense
• Intervention in Lebanon, Libya, Grenada, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and on and on

Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet Reform and Detente

• Perestroika - restructuring of the Soviet Economy
• Glasnost - freedom and governmental transparency
• INF Treaty and START I -

Solidarity Movement

Polish Solidarity

• Trade Union founded in 1980 by Lech Walesa
• 1st Union not controlled by the Soviet Union
• Coalition of workers and the Catholic Church
• Held the first competitive elections within the Eastern Bloc

The Velvet Revolution

Czechoslovakia

• Inspired by collapse of regimes in Poland, Hungary, E. Germany
• Led by the student and artistic communities, playwright Vaclav Havel
• Protests and Strikes forced resignation of entire Communist Govt.
• Free elections produced

Collapse of the Soviet Union

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