Cold War, Part II – Quiz

  1. Explain the evolution of American nuclear diplomacy toward the Soviet Union from the 1940s through the 1960s.
  2. Explain the factors that led the USA and the USSR into détente in the late 1960s.
  3. Explain why 1979 was a critical year in the history of the Cold War.
  4. Explain the role of Ronald Reagan in bringing the Cold War to an end.
  5. Identify the events that led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989.
  6. Explain the events that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, 1979-1991.

Show answers

  1. Nuclear monopoly before 1949 . . . doctrine of “massive retaliation” in the 1950s . . . “Mutually Assured Destruction” from the 1960s
  2. USSR’s tense relations with China and USA’s war in Vietnam, along with economic problems, distracted each side.
  3. The Cold War “heated up” from the cumulative impact of the failure of SALT II, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the fallout from the Iranian Revolution.
  4. Reagan’s renewal of the arms race exacerbated the economic problems the USSR was already suffering from, and it probably hastened the end of the Cold War.
  5. Resistance grew in eastern Europe from the early 1980s, e.g. Solidarity in Poland; USSR withdrew from eastern Europe for financial reasons; Communist parties had a tenuous control, but Hungary opened its border with Austria, threatening a mass exodus from the region; governments acquiesced in opening borders and holding elections.
  6. Military expenditures in Afghanistan and in the arms race with the USA accelerated the USSR toward bankruptcy; there was also a crisis of consumer culture, with massive worker absenteeism and shortages of most goods; Gorbachev’s attempts at glasnost and perestroikawere unable to right the ship; Soviet republics began seceding in 1990; a hardliner coup in August 1991 failed; Russia’s secession in late 1991 was the last straw