The Breakdown Of The 1970 — страница 2

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introduce radical cuts in arms levels which was flatly turned down by Moscow. In 1977, the Soviets stepped up there nuclear arms in Europe. They replaced all old military devices for improved arms, which was seen by the US as a new threat to the d tente. This saw a simultaneous build up of arms for the Western alliance whilst still calling for greater arms reductions. (Isaacs, Downing 1996). In addition to this a series of International events managed to inflame the superpowers. Firstly Egypt visited Israel making peace after many years of fighting. The Camp David Accords mediated by Carter came to pass which infuriated Moscow and further alienated the east in international affairs. In opposition to this the USSR supported Cuban troops in the Horn of Africa with Ethiopia’s

struggle with Somalia. The thought of d tente ebbed away. But it would seem the height of the breakdown lied in the Persian Gulf region. For twenty-five years the shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, pursued the modernization of their country. The oil revenues helped fuel the process of this change. Carter called Iran “an island of stability” (Ambrose 1997:291). The stability once noted in Iran crumbled under the pressure of the Islamic clergy with the Ayatollah Khomeini at the head forcing the shah to flee his country. The Ayatollah condemned the western world and the new Islamic Republic was declared. The US had lost a crucial ally. In 1979, the Carter administration decided that the SALT talks needed to be finalized. SALT II would be an historic achievement and the first

and last time Brezhnev and Carter would come together in a summit forum. At the end of the summit SALT II was seen as a success. On Carter’s arrival back home however concerns as to the particulars of the SALT II talks would be raised. The republican right, accused Carter of being too soft on the Soviet’s and changes were made through the Senate. Carter gave to go-ahead for the MX missile system and increased spending on defense. All of this convinced the Soviets that SALT II was lost and that d tente had collapsed (Vadney 1998). As this set of policies collapsed, the Soviet’s were deciding whether to intervene in war torn Afghanistan. In December 1979, some “85,000 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan” (Ambrose 1997:287). Carter was extremely hostile towards this invasion

and saw it as an event that “could pose the most serious threat to world peace since the Second World War” (Ambrose 1997:287-8) and moved to boycott the upcoming Olympic games to be held in Moscow. Washington seemed to be floundering in the Cold War attempt at d tente and the very ideology of peace was cut short. Nixon and Kissinger had previously developed a strategy of d tente as a way to establish World order. In an era of nuclear vulnerability negotiations were imperative. However, there was a fatal difference in the concept of its basic role between the two superpowers that eventually to its failure and ongoing diplomatic talks were not continued by the new Carter/Brezhnev term. The actual concept of what the d tente was a key issue in its failure. In the eyes of the

American leaders, it was a way of managing the emergence of Soviet power. The Soviet leaders, on the other hand, saw it as a way of managing the transition of the United States to a more modest role in international relations from one of superiority. Each country saw itself as the manager of transition in an age of nuclear parity. Nixon said, “our goal is different to theirs. We seek peace as an end in itself. They seek victory, with peace being at this time a means to an end in itself” (Froman 1991:72) Due to the nuclear parity of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union it meant there was some inability for America to maintain world order. It also meant that the Soviet Union had a relatively more important role than it previously did. Although both had different opinions of world

order, which to some extent was understood, the implication on their diverging opinions were not. Soviet leaders wanted to make a historical change by replacing capitalism in the world with socialism. The Soviets believed a transition like this could occur in a peaceful way through d tente. It would seem that they didn’t want to use military force as a method behind such a change, contrary to some beliefs. American reactions to varying events may have been preempting conflict too early with Washington reacting too quickly to Soviet policy (Pipes 1980). Both the Soviet Union and the United States tried to increase their security through increased military weapons. The efforts by both countries to do this were seen as an attempt to gain absolute security, domination and