TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

End of the Cold WarEnd of the Cold War

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

• Analyze the ways that Ronald Reagan challenged communism and the Soviet Union.

• Explain why communism collapsed in Europe and in the Soviet Union.

• Describe other foreign policy challenges that faced the United States in the 1980s.

Objectives

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

Terms and People

• Strategic Defense Initiative – President Reagan’s plan to develop innovative defenses to guard the U.S. against nuclear missile attacks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDCzpAuWM1w

• Contras – anti-communists in Nicaragua who were backed by the Reagan administration Mikhail Gorbachev – Soviet President beginning in 1985 who ushered in a new era of social and economic reforms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEnKxTYxKBY

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

Terms and People (continued)

• glasnost – Russian term meaning “a new openness”; a policy in the Soviet Union in the 1980s calling for open discussion of national problems

• perestroika − a policy in the Soviet Union in the 1980s calling for restructuring of the stagnant Soviet economy

• Iran-Contra affair − a political scandal under President Reagan involving the use of money from secret arms sales to Iran to illegally support the Contras in Nicaragua

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

President Reagan believed that the United States should seek to roll back Soviet rule in Eastern Europe and that peace would come through our military strength.

Reagan’s policies initially created tensions between the superpowers, but ultimately contributed to the end of the Cold War.

What were Reagan’s foreign policies, and how did they contribute to the fall of communism in Europe?

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

Reagan did not think that the Soviet Union could afford to spend as much on defense.

The military build-up included the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Defense spending rose dramatically.

President Reagan believed that communism could be weakened by building up the American military.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

• Afghanistan – U.S.–backed guerillas fought Soviet forces.

• El Salvador - The U.S. backed the right-wing government against leftist rebels.

• Grenada - U.S. troops invaded to prevent the nation from becoming a communist outpost.

• Nicaragua - The U.S. backed Contras to prevent the new government from providing the Soviets with a “safe house” in America’s backyard.

The Reagan administration also aimed to weaken the Soviet Union by supporting anticommunist groups around the world.

Some of these actions were legally questionable.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

Mikhail Gorbachev became the president of the Soviet Union in 1985.

His twin policies of glasnost and perestroika moved the Soviet Union away from socialism and marked the beginning of a new era in U.S.–Soviet relations.

Some scholars also credit Reagan’s arms buildup with hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

In 1989, several Eastern European nations ousted their communist regimes.

• Poland• Hungary• Czechoslovakia• Germany• Bulgaria• Romania

The fall of the Berlin Wall

in Germany symbolized the end of communism in Europe.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

The Soviet Union broke apart in 1991.

The Cold War, which had lasted more than45 years, was finally over.

Newly elected President George H.W. Bush signed agreements with Gorbachev and his successor, President Boris Yeltsin.

They pledged friendship, cooperation, and reduction in the buildup of nuclear weapons.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

But the United States continued to confront trouble in the Middle East.

But the United States continued to confront trouble in the Middle East.

The United States clashed with Libya throughout the 1980s.In 1983, 241 American marines were killed in Lebanon.

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.

In 1985, the United States sold weapons to Iran.

In return, Iran pressured Lebanese terror groups to release some American hostages.

The U.S used the money from gun sales to secretly fund the Contras in Nicaragua.

But Congress banned sending funds to the Contras in 1983.

Several leading Reagan officials were convicted in this scandal, but Reagan remained popular after he left office.

The Iran-Contra affair damaged Reagan’s reputation during his second term.