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Iran-Iraq War
War broke out between Iran and Iraq and the U.S. secretly aided both sides because it did not want the balance of power in the region to change (the power should not be given to the Soviet Union as the U.S. had worked hard to prevent any Soviet influence in the region) -
U.S. took measures to prevent invasion
President Jimmy Carter warned the Soviets against any attempt to gain control of the Persian Gulf. To protect the invasion, he stopped the U.S. grain shipments to the Soviet Union and ordered a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. -
Ronald Reagan came into office
A fiercely anti-Communist U.S. president, Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. Reagan increased defense spending, putting both economic and military pressure on the Soviets. In November President Reagan proposed Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). Reagan announced his Zero-Zero proposal under which the United States and NATO would cancel the deployment of Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles in Western Europe if the Soviets would dismantle some of its missiles. -
Soviet Union temporarily stopped nuclear weapon development
Brezhnev announced that the Soviet Union was temporarily stopping deployment of new nuclear weapons and threatened to retaliate if the U.S. installed new medium-range missiles in Western Europe. -
Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)
Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, a program to protect against enemy missiles (it was not put into effect but remained a symbol of U.S. anti-Communist sentiment) -
Broad outline for talks
Reagan created a broad outline for talks between the U.S. and Soviet Union regarding arms control issues. In September of the same year, he met with the Soviet Union’s foreign minister Gromyko to discuss these issues. -
Changes in Soviet leadership (turning point event)
Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to power and brought a new policy towards the U.S. and the beginnings of a final thaw of the Cold War -
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster
The worst nuclear disaster in history occurred in Chernobyl of northern Ukraine as tensions of the Cold War lessened. This incident had an immense impact on the world’s view of nuclear power. Two days after the disaster, the Soviets tried to cover it up, but the radiation was 100 times more powerful than the radiation from the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so it began to affect the people living there. -
Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty
The Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in Geneva, called for the elimination of medium and short-ranged missiles in Europe. -
Ronald Reagan "Berlin Wall" Speech
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Communist Party of the Soviet Union's XIXth Party Conference
General Secretary of the Communist Party Gorbachev announced major political reforms for the Soviet Union in June 1988, at the Party's XIXth Party Conference. These included introducing a new executive president and a new legislative element to be called the Congress of People's Deputies. In instituting these reforms, Gorbachev aimed to reduce party control of the government.
