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The Cold War from 1979 to 1985, was a late phase of the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
marked by a sharp increase in hostility between the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and the
West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
. It arose from a strong denunciation of the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...
in December 1979. With the election of Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
in
1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
, and American President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
in
1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...
, a corresponding change in Western foreign policy approach toward the Soviet Union was marked by the rejection of
détente ''Détente'' ( , ; for, fr, , relaxation, paren=left, ) is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The diplomacy term originates from around 1912, when France and Germany tried unsucces ...
in favor of the Reagan Doctrine policy of
rollback In political science, rollback is the strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime. It contrasts with containment, which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with détente, ...
, with the stated goal of dissolving Soviet influence in Soviet Bloc countries. During this time, the threat of
nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...
had reached new heights not seen since the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
of 1962. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan following the
Saur Revolution The Saur Revolution (; ), also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup, was a violent coup d'état and uprising staged on 27–28 April 1978 (, ) by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which overthrew President of Afghan ...
in that country, ultimately leading to the deaths of around one million civilians.
Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...
fighters succeeded in forcing a Soviet military withdrawal in 1979. In response, U.S. President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
announced a U.S.-led
boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
of the Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics. In 1984, the Soviet Union responded with its own boycott of the
1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...
in
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. Tensions increased when the U.S. announced they would deploy Pershing II missiles in
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
, followed by Reagan's announcement of the U.S.
Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles. The program was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan called for a ...
and were further exacerbated in 1983 when Reagan branded the Soviet Union an " evil empire". In April 1983, the United States Navy conducted FleetEx '83-1, the largest fleet exercise held to date in the North Pacific.Johnson, p. 55Richelson, p. 385 The conglomeration of approximately forty ships with 23,000 crewmembers and 300 aircraft, was arguably the most powerful naval armada ever assembled. U.S. aircraft and ships attempted to provoke the Soviets into reacting, allowing U.S. Naval Intelligence to study Soviet radar characteristics, aircraft capabilities, and tactical maneuvers. On April 4, at least six U.S. Navy aircraft flew over one of the Kurile Islands, Zeleny Island, the largest of a set of islets called the Habomai Islands. The Soviets were outraged and ordered a retaliatory overflight of the
Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...
. The Soviet Union also issued a formal diplomatic note of protest, which accused the United States of repeated penetrations of Soviet airspace. In the following September, the civilian airliner
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007)In aviation, two types of Airline codes, airline designators are used. The flight number KAL 007, with the ICAO code for Korean Air Lines, was used by air traffic control. In ticketing, however, IAT ...
was downed by Soviet fighter jets over nearby Moneron Island. In November 1983,
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
conducted a military exercise known as "
Able Archer 83 Able Archer 83 was a military exercise conducted by NATO that took place in November 1983, as part of Exercise Able Archer, the annual Able Archer exercise. It Military simulation, simulated a period of heightened nuclear tensions between NATO a ...
". The realistic simulation of a nuclear attack by NATO forces caused considerable alarm in the USSR and is regarded by many historians to be the closest the world came to nuclear war since the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
in 1962. This period of the Cold War would encompass the first term of American President Ronald Reagan (1981–1985), the death of
Soviet leader During History of the Soviet Union, its 69-year history, the Soviet Union usually had a ''de facto'' leader who would not always necessarily be head of state or even head of government but would lead while holding an office such as General Sec ...
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
in 1982, and the brief interim period of Soviet leadership consisting of
Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...
(1982–1984) and
Konstantin Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ( – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1984 until his death a year later. Born to a poor family in Siberia, Chernenko jo ...
(1984–1985). This phase in the Cold War concluded in 1985 with the ascension of reform-minded Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
who possessed a commitment to reduce tensions between the East and the West and to bring about major reforms in Soviet society. While Cold War (1979–1985) is sometimes referred as New Cold War or Second Cold War, it's distinct from increased geopolitical tensions in 21st century also referred as
Second Cold War The terms Second Cold War, Cold War II, or the New Cold War has been used to describe heightened geopolitical tensions in the 21st century, usually between, on one side, the United States and, on the other, either China or Russia—the latter o ...
.


Prelude: A decade of detente

During the
1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War ...
, the United States and the Soviet Union had pursued a policy of
détente ''Détente'' ( , ; for, fr, , relaxation, paren=left, ) is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The diplomacy term originates from around 1912, when France and Germany tried unsucces ...
, 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 ''Neue Ostpolitik'' (German for "new eastern policy"), or ''Ostpolitik'' () for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Re ...
) culminated in the signing of the
Helsinki Accords The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration, was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, betwee ...
. Additionally, several major arms control agreements were signed, such as SALT I & II. Additionally, efforts were taken by the United States to secure a peace treaty to end its participation in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. To this end, Nixon attempted to induce China to support the peace process and proceeded to make a historic trip to the communist nation. While this outreach to China would ultimately fail to avert communist victory in the Vietnam War, it is still regarded one of the most important geopolitical acts of the 20th century, fundamentally altering the Cold War dynamic between the U.S. and the USSR. While such efforts toward détente were generally supported by the publics of both sides (for example 68 percent of Americans believed that Nixon's China Trip would improve world peace) there were still critics of such efforts. In the United States, conservatives such as Barry Goldwater condemned détente, going onto say, "Our objective must be the destruction of the enemy as an ideological force possessing the means of power" and warning that trade with the Soviet Union assists in the maintenance of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. American opposition to détente was also shared by members of the American left, such as Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who believed the Soviet Union needed to be aggressively confronted by the United States. Despite these criticisms, détente continued throughout the 1970s, enjoying support from members of both sides of the American political divide, with both parties nominating pro-détente candidates in the 1976 Presidential Election (President Ford vs. Governor Jimmy Carter.) In Western Europe, there was also some opposition to détente. As a consequence of West German Chancellor
Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...
's ''Ostpolitik,'' the West German government repudiated all claims east of the Oder-Niesse river, forfeiting claims historic German territory that had been lost at the end of World War II. While this move helped ease fears of German revanchism against the Soviet Union and Poland, it drew criticism from Brandt's chief opponent, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU.) In the Soviet Union itself, dissidents such as
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...
(also former member of the
Soviet nuclear program The Soviet atomic bomb project was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II. Russian physicist Georgy Flyorov suspected that the Allies of World War II, Allied powers were secretly d ...
), warned that Western security was threatened if détente wasn't accompanied by liberalization in the Soviet Union. Soviet and Eastern human rights activists came under renewed assault during this time period by communist intelligence services, such as the
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
. The absence of significant western criticism of continued human rights abuses resulted in rising discontent among Eastern European dissidents, with Czech playwright (and future
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
) Vachlav Havel labeling détente as "naive, thickheaded." File:Willy-brandt-und-richard-nixon 1-588x398.jpg, Chancellor Willy Brandt (left) with American President Richard Nixon (right.) The two statesmen were champions of détente and trade with the Eastern Bloc. File:Nixon and Zhou toast.jpg, President Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast one another during the former's visit to the People's Republic of China. The two are credited with forging a new axis in the Cold War out of mutual hostility to the Soviet Union. File:Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, 1973-1977.jpg, Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger (right), is widely credited with playing a driving role in American foreign policy during the first half of the 1970s, particularly in regards to Cold War policy. File:Leonid Brezhnev, 1972 (color).png, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, the ''de facto'' leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, played the leading role in determining the communist world's foreign policy during this time period.


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 The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War superpowers dealt with arms control in two rounds of ...
was signed in 1979 in an attempt to contain the expansion of MIRVs. However, this treaty wasn't ratified by the
U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
due to the
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...
in December of that year. Both the Soviet Union and the United States had taken an interest in Afghanistan during the Cold War vying for influence in the neutral mountainous country. To this end, both the Soviet Union and the United States undertook massive infrastructure projects in the underdeveloped nation. So generous was superpower aid that the Afghan Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal once said that, "he could light his American cigarettes with Russian matches." Afghanistan witnessed a period of rising political instability that began with the overthrow of King Zahir Shah in 1973. During the period, Afghanistan witnessed a massive growth in the size of its communist movement, particularly in the ranks of the Afghan military. This culminated in the 1978 Saur Revolution, where by members of the
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), known as the Homeland Party ( Dari: , ) from June 1990, was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 ...
, a Soviet-backed Marxist–Leninist party, seized power in a bloody coup. The communists initiated a radical social and political revolution which saw the liquidation of large numbers of dissidents and "class enemies." The coup and subsequent political violence provoked a civil war between the Marxist state and its non-communist opponents, which included, among others, radical
Islamists Islamism is a range of Religion, religious and Politics, political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is su ...
. The deterioration of the communists military position prompted the Soviet Union to intervene in the conflict. The entrance of the Soviet Union into the Afghanistan War is widely credited with ending support for détente and provoked a series of retaliatory responses from the United States, such as the aforementioned withdrawal from SALT II, as well as the imposition of a grain embargo, the boycotting of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, and the beginning of weapons sales to Afghan anti-Soviet rebels. Additionally, it diplomatically isolated the Soviet Union on the world stage, particularly in the Middle East. The election of Ronald Reagan is widely heralded as a turning point in the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. According to
Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...
, Reagan was "the first postwar President to take the offensive both ideologically and strategically." While Carter had initiated a military buildup after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, it would be under the Reagan Administration that the United States would aggressively buildup its conventional and nuclear stockpile, marking a renewed period of competition in place of cooperation.


Rollback Doctrine

In 1984, journalist
Nicholas Lemann Nicholas Berthelot Lemann is an American writer and academic, and is the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He ...
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. Eventually it will break them, and then there will be just one superpower in a safe world — if, only if, we can keep spending." Lemann notes that when he wrote that in 1984, he thought the Reaganites were living in a fantasy world. But in 2016, he says, that passage represents "a fairly uncontroversial description of what Reagan actually did." The Reagan strategy also included escalating conflicts the Soviets were involved in, especially the
Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...
and the
Central American crisis The Central American crisis began in the late 1970s, when major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America, causing it to become the world's most volatile region in terms of socioeconomic change. In particu ...
. It included diplomatic moves to persuade Western European governments to host American missiles pointed at the Soviet Union. Additionally, it included an attempt to construct a space based anti-ballistic missile defense known as the
Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles. The program was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan called for a ...
(However many critics dubbed it "Star Wars.") The strategies were continued until the
Revolutions of 1989 The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Communist state, Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts ...
. People in the Eastern European
satellite state A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting a larger ob ...
s revolted against their dictatorships and became
parliamentary democracies A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...
. The Russian people ended their communist system in 1991. Without support from Moscow, many subsidized communist movements in the Asia, Africa, and Latin America virtually collapsed. In the 21st century, only China, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba remain.


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 Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...
, 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 under the control of the communist government. Throughout the following year, Poland experienced growing political chaos as the Solidarity protests spread across the country, threatening the survival of the communist state. On December 13, 1981, General Jaruzelski, head of the Polish military, declared a state of martial law across Poland, ordering the arrest of members of Solidarity and other opposition organizations. During the period leading up to the declaration of martial law by Poland's government, there was speculation on both sides of the Iron Curtain about the specter of a Soviet military intervention in the crisis, similar to previous Soviet interventions in Eastern Europe (i.e. Hungarian Revolution,
Prague Spring The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secre ...
.) However, the Soviets ultimately decided against direct intervention in Poland out of fear of western economic sanctions on the Soviet Union. Poland would remain in a state of martial law until 1984, when the Polish government began gradually releasing members of the Polish opposition from prison. The conflict between Solidarity and the Jaruzelski government would ultimately come to an end in 1989, with the democratization of Poland and the defeat of the ruling communist party in Poland's first free post-World War II
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
.


Nuclear buildup (1981–1983)


Deployment of Intermediate Nuclear Forces to Europe

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 The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...
states. This move set off alarms in the
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
alliance, which was dependent upon tactical nuclear superiority to offset the Soviets conventional superiority. In order to enhance the nuclear deterrence of the NATO alliance, member states committed to deploy several hundred missiles to Western Europe, mainly Pershing II.


Technological developments

During the Cold War prior to the 1970s and 1980s, the primary heavy strategic bomber of the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
was the
B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic aircraft, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the ...
. However, the development of more sophisticated
Airborne Early Warning and Control An airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system is an airborne radar early warning system designed to detect aircraft, ships, vehicles, missiles and other incoming projectiles at long ranges, as well as performing command and control of the ...
(AWACS) technology rendered the B-52 more vulnerable to attacks from the ground and enemy fighters. The Air Force saw a need for a bomber that could go faster, was more maneuverable, and could still deliver a substantial payload to its target. This led to the development of the B-1A Lancer in the early to mid 1970s. The B-1A program was cancelled in 1977 but was later brought back by President Reagan in 1981 under its new and current designation, the
B-1B The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It has been nicknamed the "Bone" (from "B-One"). , it is one of the United States Air Force's three strategic bombers, along with th ...
. The B-1B is capable of speeds at or above Mach 1.2 and can deliver a payload of 75,000 pounds. The Lancer was a nuclear capable bomber until 1994 when the nuclear mission for the bomber was cancelled, and it was switched to conventional weapons. Another weapon that was produced during this time frame was the Pershing II
Medium-range Ballistic Missile A medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) is a type of ballistic missile with medium range (aeronautics), range, this last classification depending on the standards of certain organizations. Within the United States Department of Defense, U.S. D ...
(
MRBM A medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) is a type of ballistic missile with medium range, this last classification depending on the standards of certain organizations. Within the U.S. Department of Defense, a medium-range missile is defined ...
). The Pershing II was first deployed in Europe in 1983. It had a range of around 1,000 miles and carried a single W-85 variable yield nuclear warhead, which had a yield between five and 80 kilotons. Although this warhead has a smaller yield than the W-50 warhead (up to 150 kilotons), the increased accuracy of the Pershing II missile meant that there was not a need for large yield warheads. Instead, the missile was capable of striking very close to its target using its radar and inertial guidance units.


Nuclear false alarms and close calls

“Never, perhaps, in the postwar decades has the situation in the world been as explosive and, hence, more difficult and unfavorable as in the first half of the 1980s.” -
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
, February 1986
One of the closest calls during this period of the Cold War happened during the Able Archer exercise performed by the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermat ...
(
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
) in 1983.
Able Archer 83 Able Archer 83 was a military exercise conducted by NATO that took place in November 1983, as part of Exercise Able Archer, the annual Able Archer exercise. It Military simulation, simulated a period of heightened nuclear tensions between NATO a ...
was a realistic military simulation exercise performed in November 1983. As part of the exercise, the NATO forces simulated a full-scale nuclear assault which may have invoked an unexpected response from the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, The Soviet "War Scare", February 15, 1990. After they had received information on what appeared to be a mobilization of NATO forces in Europe, many military officials in the Soviet Union believed that the United States was using the exercise to disguise a strategic nuclear first strike. This led to an unusual response from the Soviet Union. This response involved Soviet military units in East Germany and Poland being put on alert and an abnormal number of reconnaissance flights.


Anti-Nuclear & Peace movements

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the general public became increasingly concerned with the continuous and growing threat of war and nuclear war in particular, and the - by then - international
peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...
and
anti-nuclear movement The Anti-nuclear war movement is a new social movements, social movement that opposes various nuclear technology, nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified them ...
s grew dramatically with many protests, happenings and activist events to spread awareness and push for disarmaments and change political agendas. The movements were most active in Europe, the US, Canada and Japan and a culmination was reached in 1982, June 12, when a million people marched in New York for an end to the Cold War arms race and nuclear weapons. It is the largest gathering of protesters in American history.


Third World conflicts


Middle East

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 Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
. 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 was arranged between the two parties. The war had claimed the lives of over a million people. The era also saw the continuation of the
Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...
(1975–1990), with the American-backed Israelis and the Soviet-backed Syrians fighting alongside various Lebanese political factions that they in turn supported.


Africa

In Africa, neither the Soviet Union nor the United States got directly involved in the numerous conflicts raging on the continent. However, several African civil wars turned into proxy wars involving foreign powers, with South African and Cuban soldiers fighting one another in the
Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War () was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two for ...
. Other conflicts in Africa were the
Ethiopian Civil War The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991. The Derg overthre ...
, the War in Mozambique, the
Second Sudanese Civil War The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil Wa ...
and the
Somali Rebellion The Somali Rebellion was the start of the Somali Civil War that began in the 1970s and resulted in the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in 1991. The rebellion effectively began in 1978 following a failed coup d’état and Presiden ...
. This combined with a total of 20 successful coups meant that Africa was a continued source of instability throughout the 1980s. Along with the various military confrontations going on across the continent, South Africa, then still under the control the ''
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
'' government, faced increasing isolation due to both its domestic repression of the indigenous black population and its assertive foreign policy. Soviet-bloc states continued their sponsorship of the ANC and other anti-Apartheid movements sending both lethal and non-lethal aid. South Africa witnessed increasing instability as both civil disobedience and militant violence against the white-minority government intensified. In western countries, such as the United States, there was a growing movement calling for the suspension of economic relations with South Africa, often referred to as the Disinvestment Movement. While the movement failed to bring about an immediate end to Western trade with South Africa, by the end of the decade the United States Congress would pass (over President Reagan's veto) the
Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 was a law enacted by the United States Congress. The law imposed sanctions against South Africa and stated five preconditions for lifting the sanctions that would essentially end the system of apa ...
, which combined with other nations taking similar measures, would strike a major blow to the South African economy.


South and Central Asia

The early 1980s saw a continued Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion. Pakistan, the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and other anti-Soviet nations provided material assistance to the Afghan rebels, who were often referred to as the ''
Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...
'' (Arabic for "holy warriors"). The United States provided approximately $750 million year to the Afghan rebels, largely via the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
. However the CIA had little direct contact with the
Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...
as Pakistan's ISI was the main contact and handler. The ISI trained 80,000 fighters against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. This support for the Afghan rebels, which would ultimately go onto include sales of anti-aircraft "
Stinger A stinger (or sting) is a sharp organ found in various animals (typically insects and other arthropods) capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal. An insect sting is complicated by its introduction of ve ...
" missiles, is widely considered as being instrumental in denying the Soviet Union and the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, later known as the Republic of Afghanistan, was the Afghan state between History of Afghanistan (1978–1992), 1978 and 1992. It was bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, by Iran to the west, by the ...
they backed victory in Afghanistan.


Southeast Asia


Yellow Rain

In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the US alleged chemical warfare by Soviet-aligned forces in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
,
Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
, and Kampuchea (or
Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
). The substance claimed to be used in the attacks was T-2 mycotoxin, a trichothecene mycotoxin which was allegedly used in the “ Yellow Rain” attacks in the three countries mentioned previously. It is called yellow rain because the substance was usually associated with a yellow color and many of those who witnessed an attack described the substance as sounding like rain when it fell to the ground. The chemical agent may have been delivered by many different means including: aircraft rockets and bombs, spray tanks, mortar shells, grenades, and traps. The Soviets denied these claims and an initial United Nations investigation was inconclusive. Samples of the supposed chemical agent that were supplied to a group of independent scientists turned out to be honeybee feces, suggesting that the "yellow rain" was due to mass defecation of digested pollen grains from large swarms of bees. These chemicals were alleged to be either supplied or delivered by the Soviets and were used in at least some of over 400 attacks and contributed to at least a fraction of over ten thousand deaths during these attacks. This chemical agent had many severe symptoms including but not limited to: vomiting, damage to the nervous system, skin and eye irritation, vision impairment or loss, and diarrhea.


Cambodia-Vietnam War

Following a few years of armed exchanges between the Soviet Union backed Vietnamese and the Chinese backed Cambodian armies, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia on Christmas Day in 1978. The decision to invade Cambodia was instigated by Cambodia from their many attacks on the Vietnamese, which peaked in 1977–78.


Malaysian communist insurgencies

8 years after the end of the first insurgency, the
Malayan Communist Party The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore f ...
(MCP) launched a second insurgency campaign against the
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
n government on June 17, 1968, with an attack that killed 17 members of security forces near Kroh-Bentong. By 1970, infighting began to arise within the MCP. It was believed that government spies had infiltrated the MCP and began working to divide the group, with many members of the MCP accusing each other of working with the government, and if they were found to be government agents, would usually be put to death. By late 1974, the government agents' actions had proved successful; the MCP had weakened from its splinter into three factions in 1970, and by 1987 the last remaining groups surrendered and the Hat Yai peace accords between the MCP and the Malaysian government was signed in 1989, marking the end of the MCP's insurgency. The MCP's cessation of fighting would lead to a similar peace accord signed between the North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP) and the Malaysian government in 1990, ending 28 years of communist hostilities against the Crown Colony government and Malaysian government in
Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...
.


Latin America

The year 1979 witnessed the overthrow of the ruling
Somoza family The Somoza family () is a political family which ruled Nicaragua under a dictatorship over a period of forty-three years, from 1936 to 1979. Founder, Anastasio Somoza García – who served as the President of Nicaragua from 1937 until 1956 – ...
in
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
and their subsequent replacement by the left-wing
Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...
movement, led by
Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; ; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician and dictator who has been the president of Nicaragua, co-president of Nicaragua since 18 February 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. He was the 54th an ...
. The incoming Reagan Administration was committed to the removal of the Nicaraguan government and armed anti-communist revolutionary forces, commonly referred to as the "
Contras In the history of Nicaragua, the Contras (Spanish: ''La contrarrevolución'', the counter-revolution) were the right-wing militias who waged anti-communist guerilla warfare (1979–1990) against the Marxist governments of the Sandinista Na ...
." In late 1983, the United States Congress limited the Reagan Administration to only $24 million in aid for the Contras. The attempts by members the Reagan Administration to illegally circumvent these restrictions resulted in the Iran-Contra Scandal. Concerned that Nicaragua was the first "
domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...
" to fall in Central America, the United States increased arms sales to friendly governments in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, each of whom were dealing with their own leftist-insurgencies. US aid peaked in 1985 at $1.2 billion before declining to a mere $167 million by 1996 (almost all of the latter was non-military aid.) In 1983 the United States invaded Grenada in which the Cuban-backed
People's Revolutionary Government The People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) was proclaimed on 13 March 1979 after the Marxist–Leninist New Jewel Movement overthrew the government of Grenada in a revolution, making Grenada the only socialist state within Commonwealth of Nati ...
was toppled. Colombia witnessed the continuation of their several decade long civil war with the American-backed government of Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala fighting various Marxist rebels and drug smugglers. The dominant rebel group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), received financial and material support from the Cuban government. None of these conflicts would be resolved by the midpoint of the decade, lasting until the early 1990s, or in the case of the
FARC The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasan ...
insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric nature: small irregular forces ...
, until 2017.


1983: The year of crisis


Operation RYAN

In 1981, the Chairman of the
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
,
Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...
, and General Secretary
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
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 possibility of a nuclear first strike from the U.S. or other
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
powers. This eight year watchdog initiative seemed to unnerve rather than reassure the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. With all of the information flowing in, it was unclear which piece of intelligence marked the initiation of a
preemptive strike A preemptive war is a war that is commenced in an attempt to repel or defeat a perceived imminent offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending (allegedly unavoidable) war ''shortly before'' that attack materializes. I ...
, which would call for immediate action from the Soviet side, before the U.S. could even get weapons in the air. When the U.S. rolled out a new class of intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the Pershing II, the KGB knew that the Americans were ready to strike, and if it was a preemptive strike, the Soviet arsenal of retaliatory weapons would be at a high risk. In February 1983, the KGB doubled down on Operation RYAN, focusing on any possible indication of a U.S. plan to attack and exponentially increasing tensions.


The airplane shootdown

Korean Air Lines flight 007 (KAL-007) was headed toward
Seoul, South Korea Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
from Anchorage, AK on September 1, 1983. On its way, the flight passed over the Soviet
Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...
, which was not a part of the flight plan. Soviet fighters launched
air-to-air missile An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft (including unmanned aircraft such as cruise missiles). AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid-fuel roc ...
s and shot down the passenger plane under orders from Soviet commanders. KAL-007 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, and the 269 passengers on board died. Among the dead was Larry McDonald, a US Congressman from
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
. The timing of this event along with the multiple other conflicts between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1983 created a political climate of high tension which could have quickly escalated to disastrous actions by either side in response.


''Exercise Able Archer-83''

Just as the USSR intensified its scrutiny of nuclear activity through Operation RYAN, the U.S. and NATO began their most advanced, in-depth, and realistic war simulation yet, known as Able Archer. Launched in November 1983, what made this particular war-game so different, and ultimately so consequential, was the inclusion of an end-game scenario that simulated the nuclear option should the war reach such a level. Soviet intelligence was able to gather that this new aspect had been included, but they were unable to tell whether or not it was all part of the game, or if there was a potential threat of actual nuclear weapons being released. This escalation in the type of simulation being performed by NATO combined with the presence of Pershing II missiles in
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
put the USSR on edge. On top of a reported increase in communications from
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
forces in
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
, there was an unusually high number of surveillance flights and large numbers of armed and ready Mig-23s were stationed near the border. Reports from Soviet sources also claim that certain forces were placed on high alert and multiple SS-20 and SS–19 mobile strategic nuclear missiles were moved and waiting. Many scholars list this event as the closest the world came to nuclear war since the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
, while others argue that the USSR's actions were not far from standard operating procedure during NATO war-games, perhaps erring on the side of caution due to the presence of the new Pershing II missiles. Most agree that the accumulating effects of this event and so many others in such a short period caused 1983 to be one of the most intense and nearly disastrous years of the Cold War.


Soviet leadership and succession


Death of Brezhnev (1982)

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
was the Soviet Union's leader for 18 years from 1964 until his death in 1982."Leonid Brezhnev." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, November 16, 2017. Brezhnev's health was starting to decline due to his heavy smoking and addiction to sleeping pills toward the end of his time leading the Soviet Union. When Brezhnev's health got worse, the Soviet Union started having issues because he could not run the country. Brezhnev tried to help lower nuclear tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1979, Brezhnev and United States
President Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served from 1971 to 1975 ...
signed the SALT II agreement. The agreement was a new bilateral strategic arms limitation treaty. However, on December 27, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, so the United States Senate never ratified the treaty.
Hafizullah Amin Hafizullah Amin (Dari/; 1 August 192927 December 1979) was an Afghan communist head of state, who served in that position for a little over three months, from September 1979 until his assassination. He organized the Saur Revolution of 1978 and ...
played a large role in the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan. Amin's relationship with the Soviet Union was decent but was eventually strained, which was one reason the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Brezhnev's policies helped the Soviet Union's economy to grow and compete with the United States in an arms race during the 1970s. The 1980s was a different story. Because of Brezhnev's poor health, he could not lead the Soviet Union, which hurt the country's economy, military, living standards, and politics. Brezhnev had to start relying more on his advisors because of his health. Brezhnev's advisors would make critical decisions, and Brezhnev eventually became a figurehead for the Soviet Union. However, political corruption spread throughout the Soviet leadership. Brezhnev was eventually criticized for the poor quality of life the Soviet Union's citizens had in the late 1970s and early 1980s.


The Andropov Era (1982–1984)

Yuri V. Andropov succeeded
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
as Soviet leader. His leadership was short lived, however, due to his ailing health; he was only the Soviet Union's leader for 15 months. From November 1982 to February 1984. Andropov quickly fell ill in February 1983, and his health deteriorated to the point he began staying in a hospital frequently. On November 7, 1983, he became the first Soviet leader to miss the annual October Revolution parade on Red Square. Andropov spent his last few days in a hospital before he died on February 9, 1984. Andropov wanted to clean up Soviet corruption and attempted systemic reform. He dismissed many party ministers and secretaries due to their corruption. Andropov also established the Soviet Union's rational state-society relations, which was designed to create resistance from both the elites and the masses. The statists' plan did not work because Andropov died, and the plan alone did not have the strength to be successful. Toward the end of his life, Andropov began to think the Soviet Union's intervention in Afghanistan might have been an erroneous decision. He believed it was not in the Soviet Union's best interest, and he gave four main reasons to UN Secretary
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar Javier Felipe Ricardo Pérez de Cuéllar de la Guerra ( , ; 19 January 1920 – 4 March 2020) was a Peruvian diplomat and politician who served as the fifth secretary-general of the United Nations from 1982 to 1991. He later served as prime min ...
as to why the invasion is not important. Andropov even visited Afghanistan toward the end of 1981 and the beginning of 1982, but he realized that there was no military solution. Andropov's response was putting pressure on Afghanistan's leadership, so the Soviet Union could withdraw without having many problems. Andropov's death meant his vision for Afghanistan would never materialize. Andropov wanted to fix the Soviet economy as it was struggling toward the end of Brezhnev's leadership. Gosplan Baibakov presented the 1983 annual plan of economic and social development, and V. F. Garbuzov presented the economic performance of 1982 for the 1983 budget. After listening to these two plans, Andropov had several ideas on how to improve the Soviet economy, especially through agriculture and agricultural workers. Andropov also wanted the industrial ministry and other ministries to meet their target plans. The Soviet Union had domestic and foreign problems with its economy, which worried Soviet leaders. Andropov did agree with some parts of Brezhnev's foreign policies, but he also wanted to create better ones. The Soviet Union's leaders also struggled to find different ways to solve multiple problems. Andropov's death meant his economic vision was never fully developed.


Chernenko's reign (1984–1985)

After Yuri Andropov's death,
Konstantin Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ( – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1984 until his death a year later. Born to a poor family in Siberia, Chernenko jo ...
was elected as the next leader for the Soviet Union. Andropov had not wanted Chernenko to become his successor because Chernenko had emphysema and health issues. Instead, Andropov's preferred choice for his successor was
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
. Chernenko's reign was even shorter than Andropov's, lasting only 13 months from February 1984 to March 1985.
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...
had helped Chernenko move higher in the political ranks. Chernenko followed some of Brezhnev's economic ideals, but he was not open about his economic development plans. Chernenko wanted to improve the Soviet Union's agriculture methods, production and distribution to help jump start the economy. One of Chernenko's major achievements was negotiating and signing a new trade pact with China, worth $1.2 billion. This also helped to ease the relationship between the Soviet Union and China. The trade protocol allowed a 50 percent commerce increase between the Soviet Union and China, but it also allowed the Soviet Union to export machinery, cars and timber. Chernenko also did some work to help improve the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Soviet Union ended the intermediate-range nuclear force negotiations in Geneva, all strategic arm talks ceased and neither side talked to the other for the next 12 months.Horelick, Arnold. “U.S.-Soviet Relations: the Return of Arms Control. (America and the World 1984).” Foreign Affairs, vol. 63, 1985, p. 511. Nonetheless, Chernenko contacted recently re-elected President Ronald Reagan to reopen negotiations and met him in Geneva, on January 7, 1985. After two long days of negotiation, both sides agreed to "resume formal negotiations on the basis of a new framework." This was a new advance in the Soviet Union and the United States' relationship because it addressed questions regarding both nuclear and space weapons. This new agreement was one way Chernenko helped the Soviet Union's relationship with the United States. However, Chernenko did not end the Soviet War in Afghanistan, which could have started the process to end the Cold War. Even after the agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States, the Soviet Union was still
boycotting A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict s ...
the
1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...
where the United States was hosting the Olympic Games in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. The Soviet Union said the Reagan administration could not ensure the Soviet athletes' security. The Soviet National Olympic Committee also felt its participants would have poor training conditions. The Soviet Union's boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics was also a direct response to the United States'
boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
to the
1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...
, which the Soviet Union hosted in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. The United States and other countries were boycotting the Soviet Union because of the Afghanistan invasion. But Chernenko continued Soviet intervention in Afghanistan even after the United States' 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. Chernenko's Soviet Union and Reagan's United States still had disagreements, so the Cold War could not end before Chernenko died.


Culture and media

Dozens of the board wargames were published covering both historical and hypothetical conflicts at scales ranging from man-to-man to global thermonuclear war. Historical conflicts include the
Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
, the
Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...
, the
invasion of Grenada The United States and a Caribbean Peace Force, coalition of Caribbean countries invaded the small island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela, at dawn on 25 October 1983. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in m ...
, and the
Angolan Civil War The Angolan Civil War () was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two for ...
. The vast majority of titles concerned contemporary World War III "what-if" scenarios wherein the Cold War turns hot and focused on a presumed Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe. Notable games include ''Ultimatum'' (1979), ''The China War'' (1979), ''NATO Division Commander'' (1980), '' Fifth Corps'' series (1980), and ''MechWar 2'' (1980), ''Task Force'' (1981), ''Harpoon'' (1983), '' Silo 14'' (1983), ''Assault'' series (1983), ''Gulf Strike'' (1983), ''Firepower'' (1984), ''The Third World War'' series (1984), ''Air Cav'' (1985) and ''Main Battle Area'' (1985). In addition, the period witnessed the release of several videogames dealing with the Cold War and Cold War related issues. Examples include Atari's well-known arcade-game '' Missile Command'' (1980), the somewhat infamous ''
Raid over Moscow ''Raid Over Moscow'' (''Raid'' in some countries and on reissue) is a video game by Access Software published in Europe by U.S. Gold for the Commodore 64 in 1984 and other microcomputers in 1985-1986. Released during the Cold War era, ''Raid ...
'' (1984), which lets you blast through soviet air defence and finally destroy Moscow (hence the name), as well as '' Theatre Europe'' (1985), which simulate an all-out conventional, albeit hypothetical, war between the Warsaw Pact forces and NATO troops over control of Central Europe. Some of these games advise strongly against the use of nuclear weapons, reflecting a widespread fear of
nuclear holocaust A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear annihilation, nuclear armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a Futures studies, theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes widespread destruction and radi ...
at the time. Additionally, there were several video games released that dealt with Cold War geopolitics, such as '' Balance of Power'' (1985) and '' Crisis in the Kremlin'' (1991.) Two films released in 1983, ''
WarGames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American techno-thriller film directed by John Badham, written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, and starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood and Ally Sheedy. Broderick plays David Lightman, a ...
'' and '' The Day After'', dealt with potential all-out nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. President Reagan was given a private screening of ''The Day After'' and was said to be deeply effected by it. He revised his posture toward nuclear arms in favor of eventual nuclear abolition, at least in part due to his experience watching the film. Recerences to the tensions were also a popular theme in songs at the time. In her 1982 Eurovision Song Contest-winning song '' Ein bißchen Frieden'', Nicole Hohloch sang about the fear of war that many people experienced at the time. In 1983,
Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena (band), Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". I ...
, sang in ''
99 Luftballons "99 Luftballons" (, "99 balloons") is a song by the West German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons" (), with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena on the album '' 99 Lu ...
'' about a scenario with balloons flying through the sky, causing a war, leaving Earth in ruins. In their 1984 hit song '' Forever Young'', Alphaville sang of living in a world with nuclear weapons.


See also

* Brezhnev Doctrine * Culture during the Cold War *
History of the Soviet Union (1964–1982) The history of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, referred to as the Brezhnev Era, covers the period of Leonid Brezhnev's rule of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This period began with high economic growth and soaring prosperi ...
* History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991) * History of the United States (1980–1991) * Political violence in Turkey (1976–1980) * Reagan Doctrine *
Timeline of events in the Cold War This is a timeline of the main events of the Cold War, a state of political 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 Un ...


References


Sources

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