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Ronald Reagan was told of Hagelstein's breakthrough by Teller in 1983, which prompted Reagan's March 23, 1983, "Star Wars" speech.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was initiated by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, with the aim to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles by using the ground and space-based systems.
This initiative appeared as an eager attempt and was widely criticized as being unrealistic, even unscientific, as well as for threatening to re-ignite an offensive arms race, thus it was soon known as Star Wars.
However, the Soviets, conveyed the idea that the United States was actually preparing a first-strike capability with which to either "blackmail" the Soviet Union or wage and win a nuclear war. Thus, it was said that the SDI was not a defensive concept, but simply a mask for something far more ominous. It was an integral part of a vast, purely aggressive program of military preparations not just for nuclear war but has set a course toward unleashing such a war.
As a response to the SDI, the Soviets compelled to increase expenditures on countermeasures and defenses of their own which unfortunately put an unbearable strain on their economy.
Even though Reagan’s “Star Wars” never led to the deployment of an actual missile shield, it drew the Soviets into a costly effort to mount a response as the Soviets tried to keep up pace with the U.S. military buildup, but the Soviet economy couldn’t endure such competition. The race has drained Soviet coffers and triggered the economic difficulties that sped up the Soviet collapse in 1991.
SDI can be seen as a pragmatic response to the Soviet effort to seize the high ground of space and to develop advanced weapons. It is also an effort both to steal a march on the Soviets and to make sure they do not do the same to the West.
(302 words)
To be continued ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5145921/#storyContinued
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1985/mar-apr/kass.html
The fall of Communism in the Soviet Union was a milestone event. In the beginning, the promise of the elimination of classes and guaranteed employment appealed to many people of Russia. The Soviet Union became a super power, and only US was more powerful. Although Krushchev started a process of slight reform, he was also blamed for the Russia’s "defeat" during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and of not accomplishing anything toward the reunification of Germany under East German rule. The Soviet Union’s low standard of living dropped dramatically in 1985. The people were angry because the Communist Party failed to fulfill its promise of employment, free health care, and a high level of comfort in exchange for their obedience.
March 1985 marks a turning point in the Communist rule of Russia. Mikhail Gorbachev was elevated to the position of General Secretary. He was aware of the current social upheaval occurring and that change in the political system must occur for Communism to survive. He set out to confront the problems that were troubling the people of Soviet Union. He came to power with two main aims: “Perestroika” and Glasnost”, which means restricting and openness respectively. State control was loosened and individual initiative encouraged with capitalist features introduced. Profiteering in allowed, military spending was reduces and introduced more political changes in the government. He expanded the authority of the Soviet presidency and transferred power from the Communist party to popularly elected legislatures in the union republics. People were given more freedom, in expression, religion and more democracy. However, the removal of central control caused inflation, lack of sustainable market economy, unstable factories and lack of support from the government officials to help out the new changes in place. The freedom granted to the people have also introduces criticism towards the government, unleashed emotions that was pent up within the people against the Communist rule for decades and the transparency of the government’s actions like corruption and the defeat of Soviet Union internationally had undermined the people’s confidence in the Soviet Government. That was when the Nationalist forces became stronger as the year went on. The USSR finally lost the support of the people in 1991, and Gorbachev resigned his position as president of the USSR.
There were many social problems under the Soviet Union, including a substantial amount of alcoholism mostly due to the living and working conditions, and substantial amount of crime. There was also extreme discrimination against women. They found it hard to find decent employment, and they were expected to also take care of household duties on top of their jobs. Women were also very scarce in government. Relations among the different ethnic groups were very tense and sometimes openly hostile. The Russian language was the language in which most transactions had to occur and it was encouraged to be learnt with the purpose of making a single Soviet culture. This made the tension in the Soviet Union even stronger. The education system also caused tension because it was set up to teach students to be obedient to the Communist Party. The health care system was under-funded, most hospitals were under-staffed and the equipment was outdated, medical supplies were also scarce. Poor standards of sanitation and public hygiene lead to an increased annual death rate and a drop in the birth rate. It is shown that all the social problems and years of bad management of resources of the country is why the economy slowed and citizens’ support for the Communist regime diminished. The problems are made worse by the commitments of the Soviet Union abroad, with vast amounts of money spent trying to compete with the US in the arms and space race and financially supporting other communist regimes in Eastern Europe. The cost in case, equipment and lives was immense and turned many ordinary Soviet citizens against the government.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/communismfalls.html
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/fall-of-communism-in-russia-faq.htm
http://www.factsmonk.com/fall_of_communism_in_russia
Hey everyone, the following articles will be posted in due time in this arrangement:
Factors for the Fall of Communism in USSR
1) Ideological Failure
2) Internal Policy Failure
3) The Role of Foreign Intervention
4) Why the USSR took 69 Years to Fail
In the meantime, happy holidays! (As if it can be considered one...)
USSR: 69 Years on the Slow Boat to Failure
Since its founding after the Russian Civil War in which the Bolsheviks won in 1922, the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had been stable country run by a group of men not chosen by democratic means, until its fall in 1991.
For a country existing in a world of change, where democracy and human rights were becoming increasingly key issues, one will wonder how the communists had managed to stay in power for 69 years.
Firstly, one would suspect that the lack of knowledge on one’s civil liberties was a key factor in the perpetuation on undemocratic reign.
As far as the history of Russia goes, it has never enjoyed democratic rule. It must be noted that before the Bolsheviks took power after the Russian Revolution and the Civil War, the Tzar had been in full control of the country. Democracy was hence absoultely foreign to the Russians.
Under Soviet dictatorship, the press was highly censored and the Soviet borders strictly regulated.
Upon the Bolshevik’s grip on power over Russia, they had swiftly outlawed all other political parties and newspapers besides their party newspaper Pravda. This enforcement of single-party rule and the relentless propagation of propaganda through the Pravda paved the way for dictatorship and oppression.
Censorship of the press and religious institutions played a major role in the suppression of the population. In a predominantly agrarian and industrial society like the USSR, the majority of the population was uneducated. The only way intellectual dissidents could propagate anti-communist propaganda was through the media or religious institutions. As these institutions were all nationalized and censored, the tight grip on knowledge perpetuated. Uneducated people made no noise – and the communists knew that.
Even if there had been dissent amongst the population in the initial years, Stalin had seen to it that such ‘troublemakers’ were sent to harsh labour camps for ‘ideological reforms’, as part of his ‘great purge’. Employing the tactics of fear mongering and brute force, dissidents were slaughtered, locked up or beaten into submission.
Subsequent leaders after Stalin, like Brezhnev, perpetuated this crusing of dissent by locking such 'dangerous individuals' in mental institutions to make null anything they had mentioned against the government.
Over the years, the crushing of opposition and relentless brainwashing of the population led to the transition from generation to generation saw the gradual erosion of peoples’ knowledge about their civil liberties and rights. Without a conscious effort by the citizens to defend and uphold their rights, it was not difficult for the single-party communist government to be established and entrenched in the Russian way of life.
The allure of communism may however, has also played its part in perpetuating communist rule in the USSR. In the USSR, most of the population was either farmers or factory workers. As such industries required large numbers of people to work out, many felt the need to cooperate. The atmosphere for mutual help created by communist ideas remained vital for success. The communist system had also promised to create a welfare state whereby everyone was taken care off, in contrast to a capitalistic meritocracy proposed by the West.
The communist party would have otherwise been successful, perhaps till this day, if not for the fact that Mikhail Gorbachev had made many lethal mistakes.
To improve on the USSR’s communist system, Gorbachev launched the Glastnost policy aimed at gathering public feedback about the system for further improvement. Under this policy, government institutions were made fully transparent and press censorship was lifted. People were now able to publicly voice their unhappiness and condemn the fledging system. As the people came together, they influenced each other back and forth, causing anti-communist ideas spread uncontrollably.
Under Gorbachev, many talented individuals were also given the opportunity to study overseas on scholarships. Having seen how prosperous the capitalist nations were in contrast to the USSR, these educated individuals came home propagating the ideals of democracy and personal freedoms.
Further more, when many hard-line top-level officials within the party spoke against Gorbachev’s reforms, he responded by firing them immediately. The sudden changes in leadership lead to the administration’s inability to reign in the newly-liberated media and the people of USSR, because the new leaders were not as experienced in controlling the masses.
With Petroiska, an economic reform introducing a Capitalist form of economy into USSR, many problems arose. To put it briefly, the reforms caused widespread lack of consumer goods, and ultimately great unhappiness amongst the people.
Without the strong backing from powerful members within the party, and the turmoil throughout the country, Gorbachev’s reforms were set for nothing but failure. Ultimately, Gorbachev’s delayed response to the crisis led to the downfall of the long standing communist rule over the USSR.
-Huiwen