P5

• In the past few weeks, we have seen how relationships between East and West, and especially between the US and the Soviet Union, had improved after the Cuban missile crisis and even more so during the Nixon period. The peak of the détente period was around the Helsinki conference in 1975.
• However, we have also seen that different expectations and disappointment with the achievements of détente had again deteriorated the relationship between the US and the Soviet Union.
• The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan of December 1979 is often considered as the end of the détente period, and it got even worse with the election one year after, of republican Ronald Reagan, who was sworn in as President in January of 1981. However, it is important to note that relationships between the US and the Soviet Union had already deteriorated during the Carter administration
• Carter Doctrine


  The US would not accept that anyone - the Iranians nor the Soviets would take control of the Persian Gulf, one of the most important corridors for oil exportation and distribution in the world.
• The Iran-Iraq War can be considered as an almost direct consequence of the events that had previously occurred in Iran.
• Khomeini had previously sought refuge in Iraq after being expelled from Iran. He had stayed there until 1978, before moving to Paris. He had to leave Iraq because his growing criticism towards Iraq's Ba'ath regime and Saddam Hussein, whom he considered as an enemy of Islam.
• After the revolution, relationships between Iraq and Iran deteriorated, as Iran's new religious leaders revoked a treaty in which both countries promised not to encourage subversion in the other country.
• On 4 September, following months of border tension, Iranian artillery shelled Iraqi positions and, on the 17th Saddam denounced the 1975 border treaty. With strong ideological fears of the neighboring regime and a desire for revenge for the Shah's earlier humiliation of Iraq, Saddam seized the chance, five days later, to invade Iran.
• Saddam had hoped for a short war, believing that he would be able to take advantage of Iran's weakness and internal political turmoil following the revolution.
• But very quickly, in 1981, the war came to a deadlock with no advances on either side. Iran was not as weak as Saddam believed it to be.
• It is important to remember that Iran still had all the modern American weapons that the US had provided them during the reign of the Shah.
• At this point, by 1982, the war seemed to turn into Iran's favour. The war remained in deadlock until 1986, when the fighting further intensified.
• The Iranians seized control of Iraqi territories and Iraq intensified its horrible poisonous gas attacks on Iran. Both countries now started to bomb each other's cities. At this point, oil tankers going through the Persian Gulf started being attacked. This is the phase of the war known as the tanker war.
• This targeting of oil tankers pushed the oil prices up, increasing Iraq's oil revenues. It is only at this point that the international community, less happy to see oil prices rise, started getting involved.
• On 17 May 1987, Iraqi air fighters fired missiles at the American vessel USS Stark, killing 37 American soldiers and wounding many others. Iraq apologized, claiming its fighters had mistaken the USS Stark for an Iranian oil tanker.
• Around one year later, on 3 July 1988, it was the Americans who would make a horrible mistake, by shooting down a commercial Iranian airplane flying from Tehran to Dubai. Nearly 300 passengers died.
• On July 20, Iran accepts the terms of the UN ceasefire. The Iranian population had become increasingly affected by the long war and the attacks on their cities, taking more and more and heavy losses.
• Amid one of the longest and deadliest conflicts of the past century, some of you might wonder both superpowers were so little involved in this conflict.
• The Soviet Union, however, was entangled in Afghanistan and could not support Iraq more actively, as higher activity in the region would certainly have alarmed the Americans, who would prevent Soviet domination of the Gulf at all cost.
• In the end, as with so many wars before, and many that will follow, after 8 years of intense fighting and an exceptionally high number of casualties on both sides, estimated around half a million combined, neither party won a single inch of territory.
• Without the Iranian revolution, the new isolated Iranian regime and the political turmoil in Iran, Saddam Hussein would not have attacked Iran. This long war, however, drained the Iraqi finances. After the War, the Iraqi economy was doing very bad and Iraq had a lot of debt to countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Following arguments between Iraq and both countries about the lack of Arab solidarity and manipulation of oil prices, Iraq decided to invade Kuwait and seize its oil production.
• As the Americans intervened to liberate Kuwait, the UN and the US imposed heavy sanctions on Iraq. This caused the Americans, and especially particular fractions within the republican party to want to cause a regime change In Iraq by getting rid of Saddam Hussein. After 9/11, which was perpetrated by radical Muslims with the support of former Mujahedeen who were previously fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan with the support of America, the United States set on a path to reshape the Middle East region to better answer to its interests. That is one of the main reasons why the US invaded Iraq, an operation that failed miserably and caused the Sunni resistance forces in Iraq to organize themselves. This, in turn, attracted many extremist Muslims willing to fight Americans and Shia Muslims in Iraq. This eventually led to the creation of ISIS, which further grew after Syrian rebels started to fight the repressive Syrian government.
• The Reagan doctrine very well fits with the personality of Ronald Reagan and the mood of the time. This goes further than certain previous cold War doctrines, as it actively promotes support to those fighting the Soviet Union.
• It needs to be said that many of those supported by Reagan were no democrats themselves and did not necessarily embrace liberal freedoms, political and human rights. The main criterion for Reagan seemed to be that they were anti-Soviet or anti-communists. In Nicaragua, for example, the US was the one not respecting the country's independence and democratic choice, not the Soviets.
• The Reagan administration is often lauded for its role in confronting communism and purportedly ending the Cold War, yet it's crucial to recognize that its priorities lay more in anti-communism than in championing democracy and liberal freedoms. This was exemplified by its support for dictatorial regimes aligned with the US, as opposed to advocating for political freedoms, as articulated by political scientist Jeanne Kirkpatrick.
• The Reagan administration is often lauded for its role in confronting communism and purportedly ending the Cold War, yet it's crucial to recognize that its priorities lay more in anti-communism than in championing democracy and liberal freedoms
• The Reagan administration's support for dictatorial regimes aligned with the US, as opposed to advocating for political freedoms, exemplified its prioritization of strategic interests over democratic values
• In Central America, Reagan's policies were marked by support for authoritarian regimes and covert operations against left-wing movements
• The Iran-Contra scandal exposed the administration's willingness to circumvent congressional restrictions to fund the Contras, tarnishing its reputation
• US interventions in Grenada and Panama further demonstrated its willingness to prioritize anti-communism over democratic principles
• The Reagan administration's actions underscored a stark contrast between its professed defense of democracy and its prioritization of anti-communism, revealing the extent to which strategic interests superseded liberal values in its foreign policy approach
• Second Cold War


  The period after détente
• During the first part of the 1980s, the Soviet Union knew a rapid succession of leadership whereby one communist crocodile replaced the other after brief passages onto power
• In 1983, President Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire
• Reagan's foreign policy mainly consisted of fighting communism, by supporting so-called freedom fighters in Afghanistan, in Central America and Angola
• Reagan's policies consisted of outspending the Soviets in terms of military expenditures to hurt the Soviet economy
• The Reagan administration initiated the so-called Star Wars programme, a defense program designed to counter and neutralize Soviet nuclear strikes
• Reagan refused to meet with high level emissaries as long as the Soviet Union did not show its willingness to make concessions
• Operation Able Archer in November of 1983 was a military exercise among NATO members that the Soviets feared was a cover up or an excuse for an actual attack on the USSR
• After 1985, the relationship between the two superpowers started to improve