CW flashpoints

• Between 1979 and 1984, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated due to the Olympic boycotts, the election of President Reagan, increased military expenditure on missiles and the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), the Soviet Union's retaliation to SDI, the on-going war following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the breakdown of the SALT 2 arms control negotiations, and the shooting down of KAL007.
• The Soviet Union was in decline with poor living standards, an ageing leadership, and an economy that was only 20 per cent the size of the US economy.
• The Soviet Union was struggling to deal with anti-communist protest in Eastern Europe, especially in Poland where the trade union "Solidarity" was demanding reforms.
• The Strategic Defence Initiative, also known as "Star Wars", badly damaged East-West relations.
• The Soviet Union argued that SDI broke the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and gave the USA a decisive advantage in the arms race.
• In December 1983, Soviet negotiators walked out of the arms control talks in Geneva.
• In 1968, the Soviet Union sent tanks to Czechoslovakia to put down the Prague Spring.
• The USA condemned the Soviet action in Czechoslovakia, but did not take any action.
• The commencement of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan occurred on December 24, 1979.
• Tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union escalated following the commencement of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
• In 1979, the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan, a country with a communist government, to take control after the president was assassinated.
• The USA reacted strongly to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
• The Soviet Union saw Afghanistan as part of its sphere of influence, bordering the Soviet Union.
• President Brezhnev wrongly believed that the USA and its president, Jimmy Carter, would not object to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
• President Taraki was assassinated during the Cold War and was replaced by Hafaullah Amin, which the Soviet Union felt threatened its influence in Afghanistan.
• Brezhnev ordered Soviet troops to invade Afghanistan in December 1979.
• Barbrak Karmal was made president and Amin and many of his supporters were killed.
• Soviet troops had to remain in Afghanistan to keep Karmal in power.
• The Mujahideen, known as the Afghan rebels, resisted the Soviet troops.
• The USA was worried that the Soviet Union would gain more control in the Middle East and a successful invasion of Afghanistan might mean Soviet influence in Iran.
• The USA ceased cooperating with the Soviet Union and began to confront it instead.
• The Soviets responded by developing their own medium range weapon, the 5520, which speeded up the US-Soviet arms race.
• The USA and its allies were directly backing a war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
• The Mujahideen was made up of the mujahids, multinational opposed to the Soviet occupation.
• The USA boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, bringing to an end the cooperation and sporting competition between the USA and the Soviet Union that characterised détente.
• The opening ceremony of the 1950 Olympic Games in Mono was the first time the Soviet Union and the USA had been represented together since the 1950 Olympic Games in Mono.
• The Soviet Union troops remained in Afghanistan, to keep Baratorkarmal in power, and these troops came under repeated attack from the Mujahideen, leading to increasing casualties on both sides.
• There were no trade sanctions with the Soviet Union before the invasion.
• The US began to build up its own conventional and nuclear weapons.
• In 1980, the USA broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and the US Senate refused to sign SALT 2, which had been signed by Carter and Brezhnev in 1979.
• The USA and its allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, secretly provided assistance to the Mujahideen.
• Iran could block Middle East oil exports at the Straits of Hormuz, which was essential to the USA's prosperity.