Changes In Ussr Presidencies example essay topic

In the years of 1979 to 1985 many incidents happened, which brought relationships between east and west to a further deterioration. 1979 is more or less a key year, which undoubtedly created more problems for the succeeding six years. Affirmative is the invasion of the soviet army into Afghanistan, which brought the climate to a further change. Also the change in American presidencies is also another key factor for the heating up of the cold war. Though the fact that the USA was still in a post Vietnam situation (four years after the ending of the war) definitely contributed to America's behaviour and ways of confronting its problems. Since the first SALT treaty of 1970, which was developed to reduce nuclear arms fare and to start increasing the communist and capitalist systems.

USA president Carter believed that he was able to stop aggression between those opposing systems and to go into history as a man, who achieved better world and political conditions than in the past and in 1979 a further SALT agreement was supposed to take place. First the USSR seemed to be very cooperative, but unfortunately, to the surprise of western countries, in 1979 soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to aid communist Afghani forces struggling in many parts of the country against their defeat. Once again the cold war started to heaven up; a Russian Vietnam was about to initiate with duration of ten years. The western countries denied any further cooperation with the soviets and consequently the second SALT treaty was cancelled. It is to imagine that the popularity of Jimmy Carter decreased dramatically, leading in the new elections for presidency to a substitute for Jimmy Carter: new president Ronald Reagan in 1980. Ronald demanded less government at home and an aggressive Cold War foreign policy abroad.

Reagan's severe fiscal policies worsen cultural conflicts in the body politic. He believed that America lagged behind the Soviet Union in the arms race. Therefore he started his legislature period with the idea of boosting up their technology for further developments of new arms systems. He introduced in the early 80's the new revolutionary defence system: the "Strategic defence System" (SDI), also called "Star Wars", which was a satellite-and ground-based weapon system, that could "destroy Soviet missiles with darts and laser beams" (notes). His first anti communist action was during the Moscow Olympiads in 1980, which was the first time that Olympia games were held on the other side of the iron curtain. Many countries, such as the United States and 61 other countries decided to boycott the Olympics (France, Great Britain, Italy, and Sweden did not join the boycott) through refusing to participate.

They used the excuse that the USSR did not change at all, and was playing with false cards with the Americans; meaning that they were not trustful anymore and moreover did not have any interest of creating better relations and finally cool off the cold war. Also countries, which only partly participated (such as Australia) had lost many athletes, as they also refused to take part. As another US response, Reagan helped the anti communist groups (the muhadjadin) in Afghanistan, who were fighting against the soviets, providing them with weapons and trainees, moreover sending even the CIA to cooperage with those groups. (Osama bin Laden was one of the, by the CIA imposed leaders of the anti communist groups). During the Vietnam War, the USSR tried to convert many states to become communist, such as many African Sates (and moreover provided the Vietcong with weaponry aid). It was impossible for the USA to intervene during that time, as they were kept busy for eight years in the Vietnam War fighting against the communist regime.

After the Afghanistan war broke out, the US decided to imitate the USSR, trying to change countries to accept capitalist systems (and also to help the Afghani rebels). So, in 1983 and 1984 incidents in Grenada and Nicaragua took place leading to a further deterioration of east and west relations. In Grenada, a communist revolution took place, which was than stopped by and invasion of US troops. Whereas in Nicaragua the left party "Sandinista" took over the country. Thus the USA provided the party's opponents "Contras" with weapons; unfortunately leading to a further incident: the scandal of Iran / Contra took place, which was a contract of providing the Contras with weapons coming from Iran, but it was secret measure without the knowledge of the American Senate.

During these six years also many changes in USSR presidencies took place. All communist leaders were starting to get older, and those who finally became presidents of the USSR, died after few years of running the country. Within five year, the country experienced four changes in presidencies, something that never occurred in the years before. These changes in presidencies could have been signs of the future collapse of the Soviet Union. Four different presidents in five years, meant constant changes and also different plans developed by each president; meaning that the country was not able to follow one direction of ideas.

Another sign was, with no doubt the way in which the USSR fought the war in Afghanistan: it was badly organised, having positioned troops only in cities rather than outside, so that the muhdjadin were able to move freely outside the cities. After the death of Leonid Brezhnev (first president of USSR in those years), Yuri Andropov was his successor. He feared the new SDI strategic defence system and was therefore convinced, that the West was plotting a war, giving the order of a worldwide alert. Under his presidency the civil Korean flight 007, which deviated 300 miles from its normal route into Soviet air space, was shot down killing 269 passengers. As the Russians believed, it was an American spy plane. Thus leading the world to greater tensions between east and west: arms controls talks were broken off, and both sides were in highest alert.

In addition, cruise and Pershing missiles were positioned in west Germany (even though Chancellor Kohl was first dubious about this action, as it would bring the arms positions between the two super powers into an imbalance). In February 1984, Yuri Andropov died and his successor Konstantin Chevchenko, but died a year after in March 1985. Mikhail Gorbachev was the fourth and last president of the USSR. With his young age of 54 he wanted to make drastic changes in the Soviet system: he was sick with the social brake down of his country, as food rations had to be cut down due to the high expenditures in the arms race, moreover he had enough of the corruption inside the communist party. He theretofore started to revive the shabby economy by calling for reconstruction (perestroika) and a new spirit of honesty (glasnost). Finally in November 1985, the first super power summit took place in Geneva (Switzerland), which summit agenda included the issues of human rights, the war in Afghanistan and arms control.

Gorbatchev's purpose in this summit was to convince Reagan to restrict the arms race. From this point on, after having consulted with his advisors, Reagan understood, that the USA had won the cold war, as the USSR was incapable of keeping track in the arms race (although there were many other factors, which contributed to the brake down of the Soviet Union). Four years later the Berlin wall fall (1989) leading few years later to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Therefore it is to conclude, that relations undoubtedly started to worsen since the beginning of the Afghani war in 1979 and moreover the increased arms race, including the introduction of the new revolutionary defence system SDI and the positioning of middle distance missiles in West Germany. The numerous incidents such as Grenada, Nicaragua, or even the Falkland war (1882 - does not really relate widely with this topic) were a contribution to the deterioration of those relationships, constantly demonstrating the country's power.