19. The Second Cold War

• June 1979 – Pope John Paul II visits Poland
• Dec 1979 – The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
• Jan 1980 – President Carter announced his Doctrine
• July 1980 – Strikes begin among shipyard works in Gdansk
• Nov 1980 – Ronald Reagan is elected as the USA’s president
• Dec 1981 – Martial law is introduced into Poland
• Sept 1983 - KAL 007 is shot down
• Unilateralism – a policy adopted by individual states, based on relying on the state’s own resources and thereby acting as an individual state, rather than in some form of alliance with one or more other states
• Encyclical – a letter sent out to all Roman Catholic churches from the Pope; it is to be read to all faithful Roman Catholics and it defines the Church’s position on an issue relevant to the Roman Catholic Church
• Politburo – the highest policy-making government authority under communist rule; it was the central policy-making and governing body of the Communist Party
• The PDPA – this dominant faction started a programme of radical, and disruptive land reform. They began a campaign against the influence of Island by rejecting the wearing of the Islamic veil and the use of Islamic green in the national flag
• The Carter Doctrine, 1980 – Carter feared that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan represented a new direction in Soviet global strategy. He was concerned that it marked an initial step in establishing a Soviet presence, not only in the Persian Gulf, but also in the Indian Ocean. Such developments would enable the USSR to threaten essential oil shipments upon which the West was dependent. Carter’s administration had spanned an era of energy shortages and rising oil prices
• Problems with arms control led to the start of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) in 1981.
• The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) stalled in 1982.
• The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) resumed in mid-1982.
• By the end of 1983, the gap between the two sides in the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) remained as wide as ever.
• The USA proceeded with the deployment of missiles in Europe in November 1983.
• The deployment of the first cruise and Pershing II missiles led to the USSR abandoning the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START).
• For the first time in over a decade, the USA and the USSR were no longer engaged in any level of negotiation.
• The USSR took the view that the USA wasn’t seriously interested in negotiating a mutually beneficial and equitable agreement and hoped that by them ending the negotiations, the Western powers would apply pressure on the USA to adopt a more realistic and cooperative stance.
• Ronald Reagan blamed the Soviet Union for the breakdown of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) because it was the power that had abandoned the talks.
• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900-89) – was the Iranian Shi’ite Muslim leader. From 1964, he was in exile because of his opposition to the Shah of Iran, only returning when the Shah’s regime was overthrown in 1979. He turned Iran into an Islamic fundamentalist republic. For much of his rule, Iran was involved in a bloody war with Iraq. He managed the ruthless oppression of all opposition within Iran and thousands of his opponents were executed
• Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) – originally a Hollywood film star, and entered politics in 1966. He was a right-wing Republican who cut spending on domestic social programmes while increasing military spending. He adopted an aggressive policy towards Central American, and in 1983, he ordered the invasion of Grenada to remove a Marxist regime
• Margaret Hilda Thatcher (1925-2013) – became Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979. In 1982, she led Britain into a war with Argentina over control of the Falkland Islands. She was an important link between Mikhail Gorbachev and Presidents Reagan and Bush in bringing the Cold War to an end.
• Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) – born Karol Jozef Wojtyla. He was an influential figure for change in both international relations and among differing religious groups. He influenced the collapse of communism in Poland and improved relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism and Islam
• Lech Walesa (b. 1943) – electrician by trade. He became a dissident trade union activist and, as a result, was persecuted by the communist authorities. He was instrumental in negotiating the Gdansk Agreement, which enabled Solidarity to legally exist. In 1989, he succeeded in establishing a Solidarity-led government in Poland. He was Poland’s president until 1995
• General Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923-2014) – First Secretary of the Polish United Workers Party in 1981 when he confronted Solidarity. He headed an orchestrated assault against any Poles who dared to challenge the Party’s dominance and the communist system, in Poland. During his period in office up to 1989, about 700,000 people fled the country
• Yuri Andropov (1914-84) was the General Secretary from 1982 to 1984.
• Yuri Andropov was a lifelong member of the Communist Party, starting as a member of the Komsomol (the Communist Party youth organisation) and rising through the ranks during WW2 while assisting Finnish partisans.
• As ambassador to Hungary, Yuri Andropov had a key position in the suppression of the revolution in 1956, and later became the director of the KGB (the Soviet secret police), a position held until his appointment as General Secretary.
• Yuri Andropov's brief tenure as General Secretary was marked by a move towards transparency, especially with regard to government spending.