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Justin Montis
Author's Bio
None Provided
Détente to Arms Race
Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended, is a historical book written during the turbulent years of the declining Cold War. It was the time of Reagan's administration and Gorbachev's power in Russia. In the US Reagan had made many changes to the US foreign policy concerning the USSR from détente, to an arms race, to drive the USSR to economic ruin. Reagan implemented such things as an end to the Strategic Limitation Talks (SALT) and a beginning to the start of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), and Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) a defense plan for the US that was supposed to use lasers from space to render nuclear strikes and missile attacks useless. Reagan's plans were not the only things that led to the end of the war; also Gorbachev's willingness to negotiate with the US in belief that it would benefit both countries led to a quicker and more peaceful solution than the older era of the USSR that was called the evil empire by Reagan, "Only an extraordinarily attentive reader would have grasped that Reagan referred to lying and cheating not as a personal moral defect of the soviet leaders but as a feature of the philosophy they held."1 Reagan and Gorbachev would also sign the Intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty in December 1987 banning intermediate-range nuclear forces. Reagan and Gorbachev would meet at three peace meetings before they would finally conclude the cold war by signing a peace treaty in Washington eliminating the use of two kinds of nuclear weapons. An interesting fact about the topic of relations between Gorbachev and Reagan during the ending of the Cold War would have to be that after the Cold War ended Reagan and Gorbachev, former leaders of the two opposing superpowers of the world would become personal friends.
When Reagan first came to power in 1981, he had a unique view of what he wanted to accomplish for the Cold War. Reagan wanted to renew the arms race and pull away from the détente that had settled between the US and the USSR. Reagan wanted to imply the strategic defense initiative (SDI) in order for the USSR to compete with the US economically to match the newly developed American defense plan. Reagan wanted the USSR to fail economically to keep up with the US defense spending, "In fact, Reagan cited in his first press conference several themes that remained in the bedrock of his policy toward the Soviet Union throughout his eight years in office: arms reduction to equal levels, as deep as the Soviet Union would accept; verification of agreements; linkage of arms control negotiations with Soviet behavior, in particular Soviet use of arms outside its borders; and reciprocity, in as much as the Soviet Union had taken advantage of the relaxed atmosphere of the 1970's détente to its own advantage."2 Reagan strongly believed that SDI would help end the war quickly, believing that SDI would render nuclear weapons useless. Nuclear weapons and missiles would be stopped from space before they had the chance to inflict damage on any target. Reagan hated the nuclear strategic doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which was based on the belief that no country would ever attack a nuclear-armed enemy because it would be wiped out by an inevitable retaliation. Reagan didn't want nuclear weapons or the limitations of nuclear weapons; he wanted the elimination of nuclear weapons. Reagan therefore started an arms race, but not to require more arms, but to try and have the USSR compete with the US and economically fail and be cast into ruin. Some of the first statements that Reagan made were that SALT should become START and he proposed that INF should be banned and this was known as zero option. Both Matlock and Lettow stressed to Reagan that he should intensify the nuclear competition and its expensiveness. They wanted to make the arms race as expensive as possible to make it more difficult for the USSR to keep up with US military spending and fall into ruin due to excessive spending on their military budget.
When the US was unable to match Soviet offensive programs Reagan implemented the defensive shield of the Strategic Defense Initiative. The Soviet response to SDI was one of fear of success and one of competition, and a need to match US technological advances. So the United States and Soviet Union relation came to be dominated primarily by negotiations over nuclear disarmament. Reagan's policy towards the Soviet Union showed the Russians that the arms race between the US and USSR would be a tough and expensive one not easily won. The US wanted to show the USSR that an arms race would only be won once their bank had been entirely stripped. During this time Reagan and Gorbachev met in both Geneva and Reykjavik where the main topics of the meetings were how to reduce the amounts of nuclear weapons present in both country's arsenals, but the negotiations were slow and tedious. "The negotiations on nuclear weapons and defensive systems had reconvened in Geneva a few weeks before Gorbachev became general secretary, but they made no real progress during the initial session."3 When the Soviet Union entered an economic crisis in the 1980's, Reagan gave no quarter, refusing to offer concessions until the Kremlin made significant progress toward meeting the four-part agenda Reagan had developed: the Soviet Union had to demonstrate respect for human rights, open its hermetically sealed borders, reduce its nuclear arsenal, and disengage from armed conflict in third-world countries like Afghanistan. Gorbachev agreed, and through his policy of glasnost, he began to ease restrictions on the press and on cross-border travel, satisfying the first two demands in Reagan's framework. And by accepting uneven reductions in intermediate-range missiles, an area where the Soviets had enjoyed a clear advantage, Gorbachev mostly gave in on the third demand. The Soviet Union would later reduce its amount of ICBM missiles.
Both Gorbachev and Reagan came to the peace meetings hoping to reduce the nuclear armaments. Both Gorbachev and Reagan lingered on SDI. Reagan wished to keep SDI at all costs, believing that the defensive strategies of SDI would help end the nuclear nightmare that the US could end up in with the Soviet Union. While Reagan wanted to defend SDI Gorbachev wanted Reagan to cast aside the whole idea of SDI. Reagan tried to convince Gorbachev that SDI would help benefit both countries and that Gorbachev should accept it, but Gorbachev did not accept it, and he did not want Reagan to implement SDI. Gorbachev and Reagan clashed over the use of SDI at Reykjavik. Reagan said that SDI was purely defensive, but Gorbachev and the Russian's didn't like the idea of weapons from space. In Washington people believed it would never work, while in Moscow people feared the success of a military weapon that would rain down from space. Reykjavik turned out not to be a success because of the clashing between the two leaders over SDI. Regan said, "Recalling his earlier reference to numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, he noted that there was an additional matter he should mention, namely that they had to limit not just numbers of warheads but throw weight as well."4 The two leaders had come close to a historic arms settlement. Gorbachev and Reagan would sign a peace treaty getting rid of all INF when Gorbachev visited Washington in December 1987.
The end of the Cold War had been secured with the peace meetings at Washington between Reagan and Gorbachev with the help of Schultz and the Soviet Union foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze. Peace to the end of the cold war had been obtained and Reagan and Gorbachev laid out the groundwork for START. Beginning in May 1988, Gorbachev began the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, just as Reagan insisted, with larger numbers leaving earlier rather than later. In that same year came Gorbachev's public renunciation of the Brezhnev Doctrine; the Kremlin had finally renounced the right to keep Communism in power in satellite countries by force of arms, effectively dismantling the entire idea of its communist foreign policy. "The end of the Cold War had a bearing on two other major developments, though it did not cause them directly: the end of Communist rule in the USSR and the collapse of the Soviet Union itself."5 The end to the accumulation of nuclear weapons and INF missiles usage was signed in Washington on December 1987. This paved the road to later weapon negotiations that would lead to the end of the war under George Bush Sr. and Russia in 1990 ending a war that had raged between the two world's superpowers for about 40 years.
Matlock conveys in his book that Reagan was the main cause for the peace of the Cold War because, from the beginning of his presidency Reagan wanted not just to reduce nuclear weapons, but he wanted to eliminate them fully and at all costs, and with the help of a cooperative Gorbachev, peace was brought to the Cold War. " During his first press conference as president, on January 29, 1981, Reagan stated that he was in favor of negotiating to achieve an actual reduction in the numbers of nuclear weapons on a basis that would be verifiable."6 Matlock is a US ambassador to the Soviet Union making him highly qualified to write about US and Soviet relations during the late 20th century since he was present and involved with most of the negotiations between Reagan and Gorbachev. Matlock being a US ambassador is bias towards Reagan and his administrations. For example during the book Matlock usually expresses Reagan as the one wanting peace, always striving for peace, and in the end, the one who always makes the right decision such as when Matlock praises Reagan's SDI and arms race for driving the USSR to negotiations and to economic trouble. The historiography of this book is presented by Matlock from within the government so the book must be very accurate. The US Army War College gives a professional criticism of Matlock saying, "Although he is the best source for information about the end of the cold war, Matlock pins the fall of the USSR all on Gorbachev's shoulders." Another professional criticism of Matlock was by Jay Freeman who said, "Matlock's account recognizes Gorbachev's importance in the scrapping of the Soviet system, while insisting that it was Reagan's policies that created the context in which Gorbachev's reforms could succeed."7 The book is interesting because it shows a detailed negotiation process between Reagan and Gorbachev and shows how Reagan decides to deal with the Cold War and why he implements SDI. It also shows how Gorbachev went along with Reagan to bring about peace, but some of the weaknesses of the book would be that the book is more bias towards Reagan being written by his ambassador and it goes too much into character details. Some more weaknesses of the book would be that the book doesn't strive into enough details on how the peace meetings affected the foreign policy between the US and USSR.
Matlock believed that during this turbulent period of the ending of the Cold War there was a great influence on all of American society. With the end of the Cold War, spending on programs such as SDI was greatly reduced. Also the end of the Cold War ended the fear of a nuclear holocaust between the two world's superpowers. The economy would improve greatly without extra spending on Cold War expenses. President George Bush Sr. would come to power and end the final peace treaties over the war. The end of the Cold War ended an era of fear, not just in America, but in the entire world. Although the Cold war ended the fear of a nuclear holocaust, it didn't end nuclear weaponry. Reagan and Gorbachev failed to eliminate nuclear weapons as they had wished. A new super evil emerged as Terrorism and the threat of any sort of weapon falling into terrorist hands began. "Both Reagan and Gorbachev had hoped that by now we would have a world largely free of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we do not, and while we no longer fear a sudden nuclear attack from a rival superpower, we are vulnerable to attacks by terrorists."8 Terrorism replaced the fear of communism throughout the world.
The end of the Cold War brought about the supremacy of the United States as the worlds super power both economically and militarily. The end of the threat of a nuclear war would bring piece and serenity to American society, but the ending of the Cold War would also pave the way to a deadly battle over terrorism. After the Cold War, terrorism would become the US major threat to securing peace throughout the world. No longer would the US fear a rival nation superpower, but instead small military fanatics who can obtain weapons of mass destruction can strike at any time, leaving the US vulnerable and susceptible to attack at all time. Economically the US would prosper even more after the end of the Cold War, and the ideas of the American society would be changed as communists were no longer seen as the common enemy in American society but rather, terrorists would be seen as the major threat to peace and prosperity. No longer can nuclear weapons protect the US from its enemies since its enemies became terrorists, and if weapons of mass destruction fell into the wrong hands, the results would be devastating. "But if any of the weapons in their stockpiles, or those developed elsewhere, reach the wrong hands, any of the current nuclear powers could be victims of devastating attacks by terrorists."9 Weapons of mass destruction, mainly in the wrong hands, became the greatest fear of all Americans.
Reagan and Gorbachev led the US and the Soviet Union into a permanent detente, ushering in a new era of peace throughout the world, until the emergence of terrorism. Reagan's SDI and his belief of beating the Soviets in an expensive arms race would lead the US into debt and not until the final Washington peace meeting would peace and prosperity between the Soviet Union and the US be guaranteed. Reagan and Gorbachev would pave the way to the final peace agreements that would permanently lead to the end of the Cold War. From the four points agreement, to the peace meetings in Reykjavik, to SDI and the ban of INF, Reagan and Gorbachev took many steps to lead to the end of the Cold War. Although they did not accomplish their goals of totally eliminating nuclear weapons from nations' arsenals, they did preserve peace between the two super powers of the world. They proved that negotiation and not military domination was the only way to preserve peace and prosperity throughout the world, "If there is a lesson in the outcome of the Cold War other than the fallacy of Marxist ideology and the bankruptcy of the Communist system of the rule, it is that a country cannot for long guarantee its own safety by the military domination of other."10 Negotiation and economic stability proved to be much more powerful than the fear of military power.
Endnotes
1. Matlock, Jack. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. A Random House, Inc., 2004, 4.
2. Matlock, Jack 4.
3. Matlock, Jack 171.
4. Matlock, Jack 220.
5. Matlock, Jack 316.
6. Matlock, Jack 4.
7. Freeman, Jay. "Matlock, Jack F. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War ended. (Brief Article)(Book Review)."
8. Matlock, Jack 327.
9. Matlock, Jack 327.
10. Matlock, Jack 328.
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