In the 1970s the sharpness of the confrontation between the Soviet and Western blocs has decreased; this process is commonly called " detente of international tension". The USSR and the USA, drawn into local conflicts in different parts of the world, needed a breather. In addition, the new Soviet leader L. I. Brezhnev had no desire for rash undertakings outside the “traditional” Soviet sphere of influence. In addition, the USSR was already beginning to experience dependence on the purchase of Western goods, and the West on Soviet oil. The USSR caught up with the USA in the nuclear sphere, and the Americans, having landed on the Moon in 1969, demonstrated their power in the matter of space exploration. A certain crisis during this period was experienced by both blocs - both NATO and the Department of Internal Affairs. (Romania occupied a special position in the police department, and France left the ranks of the NATO military organization in the 1960s, Spain limited the activities of the US Air Force in its country after the emergency release of four thermonuclear bombs over the Spanish village of Palomares in 1966. ) The government of the Social Democrats in the FRG expressed its readiness to recognize the inviolability of the borders in the east.

Years of decreasing international tension gave way to dangerous moments of mutual confrontation. A new round of tension occurred at the end of the 70s - the beginning of the 80s. The entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan marked the end of détente. The arms race has resumed with renewed vigor. The Americans initiated the development of a space missile defense program, which greatly worried the USSR, which did not have sufficient means to fight back in space.

SALT-1 and ABM treaties

As a result, in the 1970s. a gradual detente of international tension begins - a policy aimed at reducing the aggressiveness of the confrontation between the socialist and capitalist countries. Back in 1967, consultations began on the possibility of reducing the scope of the arms race, culminating in the signing OSV-1 agreements(strategic arms limitation) and PRO(limitation of missile defense systems) in 1972. In them, the USSR and the USA set the maximum number of missile launch stops, including sea ones. The SALT-1 treaty was in effect for five years, while the ABM treaty had an unlimited duration. The existing structure of groups of ground-based ballistic missiles was actually “frozen”. Countries have committed themselves not to create more than two areas of anti-missile defense (the calculation was made that if you can not fully defend yourself, then the readiness for a nuclear strike will also decrease).

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

The most important achievement of "détente" was also Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975 held in the city of Helsinki. It crowned the negotiations between the socialist camp and Western countries, which began in the 1960s. The USSR and its allies managed to achieve recognition of the principle of the inviolability of borders (and, therefore, the established territories of the countries of Eastern Europe, including the GDR), agreeing in response to recognize the principle of human rights and the right to free exchange of information and contacts between people. In fact, the final act of the meeting ( August 1, 1975) was tantamount to a post-war peace treaty. In Moscow, it was regarded as a triumph of Soviet diplomacy, and 10 principles of the act were even included in the text of the new Constitution of the USSR in 1977. Indeed, a number of measures were taken in the Soviet Union to facilitate the procedure for the entry and stay of foreigners in the country, but the principles of human rights in relation to their own citizens of the USSR did not seek to comply; this met with harsh criticism from the West.

SALT-2 agreement

Until 1979, negotiations continued on the limitation of strategic arms, which led to the conclusion SALT-2 agreements. It provided for an even greater reduction in missiles and strategic bombers and for curbing the process of modernizing strategic weapons. The USSR and the USA pledged not to deploy missiles on mobile launchers. However, this Treaty never entered into force. material from the site

US and USSR leaders J. Carter and L. I. Brezhnev sign the SALT-2 Treaty

End of the Cold War (1985-1991)

The next stage in the history of international relations began in the mid-1980s. 20th century The consent of the Soviet leadership to the unification of Germany, the beginning of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, political dialogue with the United States on the issue of disarmament became new trends in foreign policy. In February 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. In 1990, the peaceful unification of the two German states became possible. On July 1, 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. All these efforts led in practice to the end of the Cold War.

In the United States, the end of the Cold War is associated with the collapse of the USSR in December 1991. This event was interpreted by American political scientists as a "victory in a long confrontation."

On this page, material on the topics:

• The policy of détente in international tension in the 1970s and 1980s.

• Discharge is natural

• Détente in the 1970s

• Détente in the 1970s presentation

• Détente international tension 1970-1980

Questions about this item:

Place: The whole world, space.

Outcome: collapse of the USSR

German reunification,

the termination of the Warsaw Pact, the collapse of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

Enemies:

ATS and CMEA:

USSR

Albania

Bulgaria (until 1990)

Hungary (until 1990)

GDR (1955-1990)

Poland

Romania (until 1989)

Czechoslovakia (until 1990)

Cuba (since 1961)

PRC

North Korea

Angola (since 1975)

Vietnam

Laos

Mongolia

Afghanistan (since 1978)

Egypt (1952-1972)

Syria

Iraq

Libya (since 1969)

Palestine

Algeria

Mozambique

Ethiopia (since 1974)

Republic of the Congo

India

Indonesia (1959-1965)

Nicaragua (1979-1990)

Kenya

Senegal

Mali (until 1968)

Myanmar

Cambodia (since 1975)

Sri Lanka

Bangladesh

NATO and EEC:

USA

Belgium

Great Britain

France (until 1966)

Germany (since 1955)

Greece

Denmark

Iceland

Spain

Italy

Canada

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Norway

Portugal

Turkey

Japan

Republic of China

The Republic of Korea

Australia

New Zealand

South Vietnam

Thailand

Malaysia

Israel

Iran (until 1979)

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Zaire

Bahrain

Qatar

Kuwait

UAE

Oman

Tamil Eelam

cold war - a global geopolitical, economic and ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and its allies, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies, on the other, which lasted from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s. The reason for the confrontation was the fear of Western countries (primarily Great Britain and the United States) that part of Europe would fall under the influence of the USSR.

One of the main components of the confrontation was ideology. The deep contradiction between the capitalist and socialist models, the impossibility of convergence, in fact, is the main cause of the Cold War. The two superpowers, the victors in World War II, tried to rebuild the world according to their ideological guidelines. Over time, confrontation became an element of the ideology of the two sides and helped the leaders of the military-political blocs to consolidate allies around them "in the face of an external enemy." A new confrontation required the unity of all members of the opposing blocs.

The term "cold war" was first used on April 16, 1947 by Bernard Baruch, adviser to US President Harry Truman, in a speech before the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The internal logic of the confrontation required the parties to participate in conflicts and interfere in the development of events in any part of the world. The efforts of the USA and the USSR were directed, first of all, to dominance in the military sphere. From the very beginning of the confrontation, the process of militarization of the two superpowers unfolded.

The US and the USSR created their own spheres of influence, securing them with military-political blocs - NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

The Cold War was accompanied by a race of conventional and nuclear arms that every now and then threatened to lead to a third world war. The most famous of these cases, when the world was on the brink of disaster, was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. In this regard, in the 1970s, both sides made efforts to "defeat" international tension and limit arms.

The growing technological backwardness of the USSR, along with the stagnation of the Soviet economy and exorbitant military spending in the late 1970s and early 1980s, forced the Soviet leadership to undertake political and economic reforms. The course of perestroika and glasnost announced by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 led to the loss of the leading role of the CPSU, and also contributed to the economic collapse in the USSR. Ultimately, the USSR, burdened by the economic crisis, as well as social and interethnic problems, collapsed in 1991.

In Eastern Europe, communist governments, deprived of Soviet support, were removed even earlier, in 1989-1990. The Warsaw Pact officially ended on July 1, 1991, and from that moment on, the end of the Cold War can be counted.

Periodization of the Cold War

Stage I - 1947-1955 - creation of a two-block system

II stage - 1955-1962 - period of peaceful coexistence

Stage III - 1962-1979 - period of detente

Stage IV - 1979-1991 - arms race

Start of the Cold War

The establishment of Soviet control over the countries of Eastern Europe after the end of the Second World War, in particular the creation of a pro-Soviet government in Poland in opposition to the Polish government in exile in London, led to the fact that the ruling circles of Great Britain and the United States began to perceive the USSR as a threat.

In April 1945, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the preparation of a war plan against the USSR. The assignment was preceded by conclusions that Churchill presented in his memoirs:

secondly, to immediately create a new front against its rapid advance;

thirdly, this front in Europe should go as far as possible to the east;

fourthly, the main and true goal of the Anglo-American armies is Berlin;

fifthly, the liberation of Czechoslovakia and the entry of American troops into Prague is of the utmost importance;

sixthly, Vienna, essentially the whole of Austria, should be ruled by the Western powers, at least on an equal footing with the Russian Soviets;

seventhly, it is necessary to curb the aggressive claims of Marshal Tito towards Italy ...

The plan of operation was prepared by the Joint Planning Staff of the British War Cabinet. The plan gives an assessment of the situation, formulates the goals of the operation, defines the forces involved, the directions of attacks by the troops of the Western allies and their probable results.

The planners came to two main conclusions:

starting a war with the USSR, it is necessary to be prepared for a long and costly total war,

the numerical superiority of Soviet troops on land makes the possibility of achieving limited and rapid (military) success extremely doubtful.

It should be pointed out that Churchill pointed out in the comments on the draft plan submitted to him that it was a "precautionary measure" for what he hoped was a "purely hypothetical case."

In 1945, the USSR presented territorial claims to Turkey and demanded a change in the status of the Black Sea straits, including recognition of the USSR's right to establish a naval base in the Dardanelles.

In 1946, the Greek rebels became more active, led by the Communists and fueled by the supply of weapons from Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, where the Communists were already in power. At the London meeting of foreign ministers, the USSR demanded that it be granted the right to protectorate over Tripolitania (Libya) in order to ensure a presence in the Mediterranean.

In France and Italy, the Communist parties became the largest political parties and the Communists entered the governments. After the withdrawal of the bulk of American troops from Europe, the USSR became the dominant military force in continental Europe. Everything favored the establishment of Stalin's complete control over Europe, if he wished it.

Part of the politicians of the West began to advocate the appeasement of the USSR. US Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace expressed this position most clearly. He considered the claims of the USSR justified and offered to go to a kind of division of the world, recognizing the USSR's right to dominate in a number of regions of Europe and Asia. Churchill took a different view.

The formal beginning of the Cold War is often considered March 5, 1946, when Winston Churchill (at that time no longer holding the post of Prime Minister of Great Britain) delivered his famous speech in Fulton (USA-Missouri), in which he put forward the idea of ​​​​creating a military alliance of the Anglo-Saxon countries to fight world communism. In fact, the aggravation of relations between the allies began earlier, but by March 1946 it intensified due to the refusal of the USSR to withdraw the occupying troops from Iran (the troops were withdrawn only in May 1946 under pressure from Great Britain and the United States). Churchill's speech outlined a new reality that the retired British leader, after assurances of deep respect and admiration for "the valiant Russian people and my wartime comrade Marshal Stalin", defined as follows:

… From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain stretches across the continent. On the other side of the imaginary line are all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. (…) The communist parties, which were very small in all the eastern states of Europe, seized power everywhere and gained unlimited totalitarian control. Police governments predominate almost everywhere, and so far, apart from Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy anywhere.

Turkey and Persia are also deeply alarmed and concerned about the demands that the Muscovite government is making of them. The Russians made an attempt in Berlin to create a quasi-communist party in their zone of occupation of Germany (...) If the Soviet government now tries to separately create a pro-communist Germany in its zone, this will cause serious new difficulties in the British and American zones and will divide the defeated Germans between the Soviets and the Western democracies.

(…) The facts are as follows: this, of course, is not the liberated Europe for which we fought. This is not what is needed for permanent peace.

Churchill urged not to repeat the mistakes of the 30s and consistently defend the values ​​of freedom, democracy and "Christian civilization" against totalitarianism, for which it is necessary to ensure close unity and rallying of the Anglo-Saxon nations.

A week later, JV Stalin, in an interview with Pravda, put Churchill on a par with Hitler and stated that in his speech he called on the West to go to war with the USSR.

Opposing military-political blocs in Europe

On March 12, 1947, US President Harry Truman announced his intention to provide Greece and Turkey with military and economic assistance in the amount of $400 million. At the same time, he formulated the objectives of US policy aimed at helping "free peoples who resist attempts at enslavement by an armed minority and external pressure." Truman in this statement, in addition, defined the content of the beginning rivalry between the US and the USSR as a conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. This is how the Truman Doctrine was born, which became the beginning of the transition from post-war cooperation between the USSR and the USA to rivalry.

In 1947, at the insistence of the USSR, the socialist countries refused to participate in the Marshall Plan, according to which the United States provided economic assistance to countries affected by the war.

The efforts of the USSR, in particular Soviet intelligence, were aimed at eliminating the US monopoly on the possession of nuclear weapons (see the article Creating the Soviet atomic bomb). On August 29, 1949, the first nuclear bomb tests were carried out in the Soviet Union at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. American scientists from the Manhattan Project had previously warned that the USSR would eventually develop its own nuclear capability - nevertheless, this nuclear explosion had a stunning effect on US military strategic planning - mainly because US military strategists did not expect that they have to lose their monopoly so soon. At that time, it was not yet known about the successes of Soviet intelligence, which managed to penetrate Los Alamos.

In 1948, the United States adopted the "Vandenberg Resolution" - the official refusal of the United States from the practice of non-alignment with military-political blocs outside the borders of the Western Hemisphere in peacetime.

Already on April 4, 1949, NATO was created, and in October 1954 the FRG was admitted to the Western European Union and NATO. This step caused a negative reaction from the USSR. In response, the USSR set about creating a military bloc that would unite the Eastern European countries.

The end of the 40s - in the USSR, repressions against dissidents begin, in the USA - a "witch hunt".

Although the USSR now also had a nuclear capability, the United States was far ahead in terms of both the number of charges and the number of bombers. In any conflict, the United States would easily be able to bomb the USSR, while the USSR could hardly retaliate.

The transition to the large-scale use of jet fighter-interceptors somewhat changed this situation in favor of the USSR, reducing the potential effectiveness of American bomber aircraft. In 1949, Curtis LeMay, the new commander of the US Strategic Air Command, signed a program to completely transition bomber aircraft to jet propulsion. In the early 1950s, the B-47 and B-52 bombers began to enter service.

The most acute period of confrontation between the two blocs (the USSR and the USA with their allies) fell on the years of the Korean War.

1953 - 1962

With the onset of Khrushchev's "thaw", the threat of a world war receded - this was especially characteristic of the late 1950s, which culminated in Khrushchev's visit to the United States. However, the events of 1956 in Poland, the anti-communist uprising in Hungary, and the Suez crisis also took place in the same years.

In response to the numerical increase in Soviet bomber aviation in the 1950s, the United States created a rather strong layered air defense system around large cities, providing for the use of interceptor aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery and ground-to-air missiles. But at the forefront was still the construction of a huge armada of nuclear bombers, which were intended to crush the defensive lines of the USSR - since it was considered impossible to provide effective and reliable protection for such a vast territory.

This approach was firmly rooted in the strategic plans of the United States - it was believed that there was no reason for particular concern as long as the US strategic forces surpassed the overall potential of the Soviet Armed Forces with their power. Moreover, according to American strategists, the Soviet economy, destroyed during the war years, was hardly capable of creating an adequate counterforce potential.

However, the USSR quickly created its own strategic aviation and tested in 1957 an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) R-7 capable of reaching the United States. Since 1959, mass production of ICBMs began in the Soviet Union. (In 1958, the United States also tested its first Atlas ICBM). From the mid-1950s, the United States began to realize that in the event of a nuclear war, the USSR would be able to launch a retaliatory counter-value strike against American cities. Therefore, since the late 1950s, military experts have recognized that an all-out nuclear war between the United States and the USSR is becoming impossible.

1962 - 1979 (Detente)

Main article: International détente

The scandal with the American U-2 spy plane (1960) led to a new aggravation of relations between the USSR and the USA, which peaked in the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the Caribbean Crisis (1962); under the influence of this crisis, detente sets in again, darkened, however, by the suppression of the Prague Spring.

Brezhnev, unlike Khrushchev, had no penchant for risky adventures outside the well-defined Soviet sphere of influence, nor for extravagant "peaceful" actions; The 1970s passed under the sign of the so-called "détente of international tension", the manifestations of which were the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki) and the joint Soviet-American flight into space (the Soyuz-Apollo program); At the same time, treaties on the limitation of strategic arms were signed. This was largely determined by economic reasons, since the USSR already then began to experience an increasingly acute dependence on the purchase of consumer goods and food (for which foreign currency loans were required), while the West, during the years of the oil crisis caused by the Arab-Israeli confrontation, was extremely interested in the Soviet oil. In military terms, the basis of "detente" was the nuclear-missile parity of the blocs that had developed by that time.

On August 17, 1973, US Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger put forward the doctrine of a “blinding” or “decapitating” strike: defeating enemy command posts and communication centers with medium and shorter range missiles, cruise missiles with laser, television and infrared targeting systems . This approach assumed a gain in "flying time" - the defeat of command posts before the enemy had time to decide on a retaliatory strike. The emphasis on deterrence has shifted from the strategic triad to medium and short-range weapons. In 1974, this approach was enshrined in key US nuclear strategy documents. On this basis, the United States and other NATO countries began the modernization of forward base systems (Forward Base Systems) - American tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Western Europe or off its coast. At the same time, the United States began the creation of a new generation of cruise missiles capable of hitting given targets as accurately as possible.

These steps raised fears in the USSR, since the forward-based US assets, as well as the "independent" nuclear capabilities of Great Britain and France, were capable of hitting targets in the European part of the Soviet Union. In 1976, Dmitry Ustinov became Minister of Defense of the USSR, who was inclined to take a tough response to US actions. Ustinov advocated not so much for building up the ground grouping of conventional armed forces as for improving the technical park of the Soviet Army. The Soviet Union began to modernize medium and shorter range nuclear weapons delivery vehicles in the European theater of operations.

Under the pretext of modernizing the obsolete RSD-4 and RSD-5 (SS-4 and SS-5) complexes, the USSR began to deploy medium-range RSD-10 Pioneer (SS-20) missiles on the western borders. In December 1976, the missile systems were deployed, and in February 1977 they were put on combat duty in the European part of the USSR. In total, about 300 missiles of this class were deployed, each of which was equipped with three independently targetable multiple warheads. This allowed the USSR to destroy NATO's military infrastructure in Western Europe in a matter of minutes - control centers, command posts and, especially, ports, which, in the event of war, made it impossible for American troops to land in Western Europe. At the same time, the USSR modernized the general-purpose forces deployed in Central Europe - in particular, it modernized the Tu-22M long-range bomber to a strategic level.

The actions of the USSR caused a negative reaction of the NATO countries. On December 12, 1979, a double decision was made by NATO - the deployment of American medium-range and shorter-range missiles on the territory of Western European countries and at the same time the beginning of negotiations with the USSR on the issue of Euro-missiles. However, the negotiations stalled.

1979 - 1985

A new aggravation came in 1979 in connection with the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, which was perceived in the West as a violation of the geopolitical balance and the transition of the USSR to a policy of expansion. The escalation reached a peak in the fall of 1983, when Soviet air defense forces shot down a South Korean civilian airliner with about 300 people on board, according to media reports. It was then that US President Ronald Reagan called the USSR an "evil empire."

In 1983, the United States deployed Pershing-2 medium-range ballistic missiles on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Belgium and Italy, 5-7 minutes from targets on the European territory of the USSR, and air-launched cruise missiles. At the same time, in 1981, the United States began the production of neutron weapons - artillery shells and warheads of the Lance shorter-range missile. Analysts speculated that these weapons could be used to repel the offensive of the Warsaw Pact troops in Central Europe. The US also began developing a space-based missile defense program (the so-called Star Wars program); both of these large-scale programs were extremely disturbing to the Soviet leadership, especially since the USSR, which maintained nuclear-missile parity with great difficulty and stress for the economy, did not have the means to adequately rebuff it in space.

In response, in November 1983, the USSR withdrew from the Geneva talks on Euromissiles. Yury Andropov, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, announced that the USSR would take a number of countermeasures: it would deploy operational-tactical nuclear launch vehicles on the territory of the GDR and Czechoslovakia and push Soviet nuclear submarines closer to the US coast. In 1983-1986 Soviet nuclear forces and the missile attack warning system were on high alert.

According to available data, in 1981, the Soviet intelligence services (KGB and GRU) launched Operation Nuclear Missile Attack (Operation RYAN) - monitoring the possible preparation of NATO countries for the start of a limited nuclear war in Europe. The alarms of the Soviet leadership were caused by the NATO exercises "Able archer 83" - in the USSR they feared that, under their cover, NATO was preparing to launch "Euromissiles" against targets in the Warsaw Pact countries. Similarly, in 1983-1986. military analysts of the NATO countries feared that the USSR would deliver a preemptive "disarming" strike on the bases of the "Euromissiles".

1985 - 1991

Main articles: Perestroika, New political thinking, Revolutions of 1989

With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, who proclaimed "socialist pluralism" and "the priority of universal human values ​​over class values", the ideological confrontation quickly lost its sharpness. In the military-political sense, Gorbachev initially tried to pursue a policy in the spirit of the "détente" of the 1970s, proposing programs to limit weapons, but rather hard bargaining over the terms of the treaty (meeting in Reykjavik).

However, the development of the political process in the USSR towards the rejection of communist ideology, as well as the dependence of the USSR economy on Western technologies and loans due to a sharp drop in oil prices, led the USSR to make wide concessions in the foreign policy sphere. In 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. The fall of the communist system in Eastern Europe during the revolutions of 1989 led to the liquidation of the Soviet bloc, and with it the virtual end of the Cold War.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union itself was in deep crisis. The central authorities began to lose control over the union republics. Ethnic conflicts broke out on the outskirts of the country. In December 1991, the final disintegration of the USSR took place.

Manifestations of the Cold War

Bipolar world in 1959

Bipolar World at the Apogee of the Cold War (1980)

Acute political and ideological confrontation between the communist and Western liberal systems, which engulfed almost the entire world;

creation of a system of military (NATO, Warsaw Treaty Organization, SEATO, CENTO, ANZUS, ANZUK) and economic (EEC, CMEA, ASEAN, etc.) unions;forcing the arms race and military preparations;a sharp increase in military spending;recurring international crises (Berlin Crisis, Caribbean Crisis, Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghan War);the tacit division of the world into "spheres of influence" of the Soviet and Western blocs, within which the possibility of intervention was tacitly allowed in order to maintain a regime pleasing to one or another bloc (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Grenada, Vietnam, etc.)the rise of the national liberation movement in colonial and dependent countries and territories (partly inspired from outside), the decolonization of these countries, the formation of the "third world", the Non-Aligned Movement, neo-colonialism;creation of an extensive network of military bases (first of all, the United States) on the territory of foreign states;waging a massive "psychological war", the purpose of which was to promote their own ideology and way of life, as well as to discredit the official ideology and way of life of the opposite bloc in the eyes of the population of "enemy" countries and the "third world". For this purpose, radio stations were created that broadcast to the territory of the countries of the "ideological enemy", the production of ideologically oriented literature and periodicals in foreign languages ​​was financed, the injection of class, racial, national contradictions was actively used,reduction of economic and humanitarian ties between states with different socio-political systems.

Lessons from the Cold War

Joseph Nye, professor at Harvard University (USA), speaking at the conference “From Fulton to Malta: How the Cold War Began and Ended” (Gorbachev Foundation, March 2005), pointed out the lessons to be learned from the Cold War

bloodshed as a means of settling global or regional conflicts is not inevitable;

a significant deterrent role was played by the fact that the warring parties had nuclear weapons and an understanding of what the world could become after a nuclear conflict;

the course of development of conflicts is closely related to the personal qualities of specific leaders (Stalin and Harry Truman, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan);

military power is essential, but not decisive (the US was defeated in Vietnam, and the USSR in Afghanistan); in the era of nationalism and the third industrial (information) revolution, it is impossible to control the hostile population of the occupied country;

under these conditions, the economic power of the state and the ability of the economic system to adapt to the requirements of modernity, the ability to constantly innovate, acquire a much greater role.

a significant role is played by the use of soft forms of influence, or soft power, that is, the ability to get what you want from others without forcing (intimidating) them and without buying their consent, but by attracting them to your side. Immediately after the defeat of Nazism, the USSR and communist ideas had a serious soft power potential, but most of it was lost after the events in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and this process continued as the Soviet Union used its military power.

Memories of the Cold War

In early April 2007, a bill was introduced in both houses of the US Congress to establish a new military award for participation in the Cold War (Cold War Service Medal), supported by a group of Senators and Congressmen from the Democratic Party, headed by the current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The medal is proposed to be awarded to all those who served in the armed forces or worked in US government departments from September 2, 1945 to December 26, 1991.

As Hillary Clinton stated, “Our victory in the Cold War was only possible because of the willingness of millions of Americans in uniform to repel the threat posed by the Iron Curtain. Our victory in the Cold War was a huge achievement, and the men and women who served at that time deserve to be commended."

Congressman Robert Andrews, who introduced the bill in the House of Representatives, said: “The Cold War was a global military operation, extremely dangerous and sometimes deadly for the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who participated in this campaign. The millions of American veterans who served around the world to help us win this conflict deserve a unique medal in recognition and respect for their service."

In the United States, there is an Association of Cold War Veterans, which also demanded from the authorities recognition of their merits in the victory over the USSR, but only managed to achieve the issuance of certificates from the Ministry of Defense confirming participation in the Cold War. The Veterans Association has issued its own unofficial medal, the design of which was developed by the leading specialist of the US Army Institute of Heraldry, Naidin Russell.

The Cold War, which lasted from 1946 to 1989, was not an ordinary military confrontation. It was a struggle of ideologies, different social systems. The very term "cold war" appeared among journalists, but quickly became popular.

The reasons

It seems that the end of the terrible and bloody World War II should have led to world peace, friendship and unity of all peoples. But the contradictions among the allies and the victors only intensified.

The struggle for spheres of influence began. Both the USSR and the Western countries (led by the USA) sought to expand "their territories".

• Westerners were frightened by communist ideology. They could not even imagine that private property would suddenly become state property.
• The United States and the USSR did their best to increase their influence by supporting various regimes (which sometimes led to local wars around the world).

There was no direct confrontation. Everyone was afraid to press the "red button" and launch nuclear warheads.

Main events

Speech in Fulton as the first "swallow" of the war

In March 1946, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill blamed the Soviet Union. Churchill said that he was engaged in active world expansion, violating rights and freedoms. At the same time, the British Prime Minister called on Western countries to repulse the USSR. It is from this moment that historians count the beginning of the Cold War.

The Truman Doctrine and "Containment" Attempts

The United States decided to start "containment" of the Soviet Union after the events in Greece and Turkey. The USSR demanded territories from the Turkish authorities for the subsequent deployment of a military base in the Mediterranean. This immediately alerted the West. The doctrine of the American President Truman marked the complete cessation of cooperation between the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.

Creation of military blocs and division of Germany

In 1949, a military alliance of a number of Western countries, NATO, was created. After 6 years (in 1955) the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe united in the Warsaw Treaty Organization.

Also in 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany appeared on the site of the western zone of occupation of Germany, and the German Democratic Republic appeared on the site of the eastern one.

Chinese Civil War

The civil war in China in 1946–1949 was also a consequence of the ideological struggle between the 2 systems. China after the end of World War II was also divided into 2 parts. The northeast was under the control of the People's Liberation Army of China. The rest were subordinate to Chiang Kai-shek (leader of the Kuomintang Party). When peaceful elections failed, war broke out. The Chinese Communist Party won.

Korean War

Korea also at that time was split into 2 zones of occupation under the control of the USSR and the USA. Their henchmen are Kim Il Sung in the north and Lee Syngman in the south of Korea. Each of them wanted to take over the whole country. A war broke out (1950-1953), which, apart from huge human losses, did not lead to anything. The borders of North and South Korea have not changed much.

Berlin Crisis

The most difficult years of the Cold War - the beginning of the 60s. It was then that the whole world was on the brink of nuclear war. In 1961, Soviet Secretary General Khrushchev demanded that US President Kennedy radically change the status of West Berlin. The Soviet Union was alarmed by the activity of Western intelligence there, as well as the "brain drain" to the West. There was no military clash, but West Berlin was surrounded by a wall - the main symbol of the Cold War. Many German families found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades.

Cuban Crisis

The most intense conflict of the Cold War was the crisis in Cuba in 1962. The USSR, in response to the request of the leaders of the Cuban revolution, agreed to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles on Liberty Island.

As a result, any town in the US could be wiped off the face of the earth in 2-3 seconds. The United States did not like this "neighborhood". I almost got to the “red nuclear button”. But even here the parties managed to agree peacefully. The Soviet Union did not deploy missiles, and the United States guaranteed Cuba not to interfere in their affairs. American missiles were also withdrawn from Turkey.

The policy of "détente"

The Cold War did not always proceed in an acute phase. Sometimes tension was replaced by "detente". During such periods, the US and the USSR entered into important agreements to limit strategic nuclear weapons and missile defense. In 1975, the Helsinki Conference of 2 countries was held, and the Soyuz-Apollo program was launched in space.

A new round of tension

The entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979 led to a new round of tension. The United States in 1980-1982 waged a set of economic sanctions against the Soviet Union. The installation of regular American missiles in European countries has begun. Under Andropov, all negotiations with the United States ceased.

Crisis of the socialist countries. perestroika

By the mid-1980s, many socialist countries were on the verge of a crisis. Less and less aid came from the USSR. The needs of the population grew, people sought to travel to the West, where they discovered a lot of new things for themselves. The consciousness of people has changed. They wanted change, a life in a more open and free society. The technical lag of the USSR from the countries of the West was intensifying.

• Understanding this, the General Secretary of the USSR Gorbachev tried to revive the economy through "perestroika", give the people more "glasnost" and move on to "new thinking".
• The communist parties of the socialist camp tried to modernize their ideology and move on to a new economic policy.
• The Berlin Wall, which was the symbol of the Cold War, has fallen. The unification of Germany took place.
• The USSR began to withdraw its troops from European countries.
• In 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved.
• The USSR, which did not survive the deep economic crisis, also collapsed.

Results

Historians argue about whether to link the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR. Nevertheless, the end of this confrontation occurred as early as 1989, when many authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe ceased to exist. Contradictions on the ideological front were completely removed. Many countries of the former socialist bloc became part of the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance

Almost the entire second half of the twentieth century was marked by confrontation between the US and the USSR. Five periods of the Cold War spanned four decades and ended with the collapse of the USSR and the collapse of the bloc of socialist states.

During the Cold War, times of bitter confrontation between the two warring camps were replaced by periods of relative calm. The following table of Cold War periods will help you visualize these changes.

	Period name	Period framework	Main events
1	The beginning of the confrontation	1946–1949	Fulton speech, the Iranian crisis, the war in Greece, the proclamation of the GDR and the FRG, a wave of repressions in the USSR, McCarthyism in the USA, nuclear tests in the USSR, the creation of NATO.
2	nuclear race	1949–1962	Establishment of the Department of Internal Affairs, the buildup of strategic weapons, the Caribbean crisis.
3	Discharge	1962–1979	Reduction of strategic arms, events in Czechoslovakia, agreements in Helsinki, mutual recognition of the GDR and the FRG, the end of the Vietnam War, the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.
4	Escalation of the Cold War	1979–1987	The war in Afghanistan, sanctions against the USSR, the buildup of strategic weapons, the production of the neutron bomb and space weapons in the United States.
5	Weakening and defeat of the USSR	1987–1991	The dismantling of the socialist camp, market reforms in China, the fall of the Berlin Wall, democratic elections in Eastern Europe, the collapse of the USSR.

Now let's look at these periods in more detail.

1. The beginning of the confrontation

Immediately after the victory over Germany, yesterday's allies began to demand concessions from each other in matters of the post-war order of the world. The USSR sought to assert its influence in the countries of Eastern Europe, in Turkey, Iran and the Far East. In turn, the United States sought to remove as many territories from Soviet control as possible. Churchill's Fulton speech in March 1946 marked the transformation of the hidden confrontation between the West and the USSR into an open one. A week later, in Pravda, Stalin compared Churchill to Hitler.

An open confrontation in the summer of 1946 almost escalated into an armed conflict when the USSR refused to withdraw troops from Iran and brought units of the Red Army to the Turkish border. At the same time, American-Soviet contradictions were growing in Germany and Korea. In 1949, the Allies, contrary to agreements with the USSR, proclaimed a West German state, and the Soviet Union proclaimed the GDR in response.

In the same 1949, the USSR conducted successful nuclear tests, and the Western allies created the NATO bloc, aimed at curbing Soviet expansion in Europe. The second period of the Cold War began.

2. Nuclear race

By the time of Stalin's death, many regional conflicts were fading away. However, their freezing did not mean reconciliation between the two superpowers. Their confrontation has found new forms: a nuclear arms race has begun between the opponents. Opponents sought to achieve parity in the number of nuclear warheads, strategic missiles and aircraft. At the same time, the US had an important advantage: its bases in Turkey and Greece were in close proximity to the Soviet borders. In 1959, a communist government was installed in Cuba, and two years later the USSR deployed its nuclear weapons there. However, this decision did not help achieve parity, but only brought the conflict to a new level. The Cuban Missile Crisis turned a nuclear war between the USSR and the USA from a dystopia into a real prospect. In 1962, the governments of Moscow and Washington reached an agreement on the withdrawal of mutual strategic weapons from each other's borders.

3. Discharging

The threat of nuclear war forced the two superpowers to think about mutual concessions. Discharge has come. The change of power in the Kremlin contributed to the decrease in tension: in 1964, the hard-line N. Khrushchev was replaced by the balanced L. Brezhnev. It was he who signed three arms reduction treaties with the United States (SALT, SALT-2 and PRO-1). During detente, the USSR adopted a number of documents protecting human rights and the inviolability of borders. Détente was manifested in the creation of the Council for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1973 and the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

In 1979, the USSR sent troops to Afghanistan. The discharge period has been interrupted.

4. New escalation

In response to the invasion of Afghanistan, the United States imposed economic sanctions against the USSR. Under President Reagan, the arms race resumed. Opponents again began to place strategic missiles without coordination with each other. The USSR again sought to find new allies in Africa, and the United States in Latin America. The escalation of the Cold War slowed down with Gorbachev coming to power in the USSR and the proclamation of the perestroika policy.

5. Weakening and defeat of the USSR

By 1987, the arms race between the USSR and the USA had stopped. The USSR made a number of foreign policy concessions to the United States, and in 1989 Soviet troops left Afghanistan. That same year, alternative elections were held in several Warsaw Bloc countries, and in Germany, the Berlin Wall, the most famous symbol of the Cold War, collapsed. By the beginning of 1991, the block of socialist countries ceased to exist, and by the end of the same year, the USSR itself disappeared from the world map. The last period of the Cold War is over.

Cold War: politicians, commanders, intelligence officers Mlechin Leonid Mikhailovich

Fermentation of minds and the era of detente

It was Nixon who led America to the détente that his Soviet partner, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, also desired. In the early 1970s, the opportunity arose for a rapprochement between the two superpowers. The United States was stuck in Vietnam, the Soviet Union faced open Chinese hostility. An unusual symbiosis formed between the USSR and the USA, which was expressed in the fact that the Soviet Union, unable to feed itself, bought grain from America. Sometimes it seemed that the two powers had more in common with each other than with their allies, who had to be kept in their camp. Stability and prevention of nuclear conflict have become more important than ideological differences.

The Nixon administration, as a result of the ferment of minds in Congress, gained extraordinary freedom of political maneuver. As a result of the Vietnam War, liberals on Capitol Hill became supporters of compromise in foreign policy and détente, while the right wanted to cut defense spending.

As strange as it sounds, Nixon was very shy and preferred to deal with papers rather than people. One journalist wrote of Nixon that he established an unprecedented one-way connection with the people: “He can reach us, but we cannot reach him. We can see him, but he cannot hear us. He is always with us, but the dialogue does not work.”

Richard Nixon did not meet with colleagues with whom he disagreed, and did not want to meet with friends who did not approve of his actions. He loved secret diplomacy.

On April 20, 1972, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger flew to Moscow on a secret visit. He managed to establish business relations with the Soviet leadership. Andrei Gromyko sometimes called Kissinger "the devil," but he took him very seriously and trusted his promises.

As early as March 1968, Nixon predicted that the Soviet Union would become more accommodating due to poor relations with China. In a sense, Nixon was right. Kissinger recalled that the Soviet partners were even interested in what Washington's reaction would be in the event of a Soviet nuclear strike on China.

In 1949, President Chiang Kai-shek, who was overthrown by the Communists, fled from mainland China to the island of Taiwan along with the remnants of his troops. The United States recognized the regime in Taiwan, which controlled seventeen million people, as the true government of all of China. Billion-strong China, diplomatically, simply did not exist for the US and its allies. For twenty years, Washington has prevented China from taking a seat in the UN and isolated it from virtually the entire world.

Under Nixon, the United States changed policy and recognized that China is one and Taiwan is part of it. At first, the Americans did not think that reconciliation with Beijing, where the cultural revolution was blazing, was possible.

"American imperialism is on its last legs," wrote the Chinese Communist Party's central organ, the People's Daily. - Although he has already reached his end, Nixon has the audacity to talk about the future. A man with one foot in the grave tries to console himself with dreams of paradise.

The first signal about the desirability of rapprochement came to Washington from China after the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The Chinese wanted to get rid of the threat of war on two fronts - against the Soviet Union and against the United States, to get out of international isolation and demonstrate their importance to the whole world.

In 1969, the feud between Moscow and Beijing took on a sinister military dimension. When Soviet and Chinese troops clashed, Washington turned its face to China without hesitation. Some American diplomats said that a rapprochement with China would undermine relations with the Soviet Union. Kissinger, on the contrary, believed that this would force Moscow to seek mutual understanding with the Americans.

In 1971, Nixon flew to China. Before the trip, the French writer André Malraux said to Nixon about Mao:

You will meet with a colossus, but with a colossus standing with one foot in the grave. Do you know what Mao will think when he sees you? He will think, "Here is a man much younger than me." You will think that he is talking to you, but in fact he will be talking to death... There is something sorcery about Mao. He is consumed by visions, they consume him.

For all their charm, the Chinese leaders are the most unsentimental promoters of a policy of balance of power. Since ancient times, the Chinese have had to confront strong neighbors. Often, being militarily weak, they won, because they understood and used for their own purposes the psychology and prejudices of strangers. China, when threatened, skillfully pits its adversaries against each other.

“At the first official dinner in Beijing in 1972,” Nixon recalled, “Zhou Enlai, to demonstrate the strength of Maotai, Chinese vodka, poured it into a saucer and held a match. The vodka flared up like a church candle. Imagine what will happen if this drink enters the stomach.

In Moscow, Nixon's visit to Beijing in February 1972 was perceived as a defeat, as a failure. In reality, China has ceased to be an unpredictable and dangerous neighbor. He turned into a normal player who obeys certain rules.

The Soviet leaders were in a hurry to show that they were a more serious partner than the Chinese. In May 1972, Nixon flew to Moscow, and it was a huge event for both countries.

The era of detente began on May 26, 1972, when two Soviet-American agreements were signed in Moscow - an indefinite treaty on the limitation of defense systems against intercontinental missiles and a treaty on the limitation of strategic nuclear weapons (SALT-1), which provided for the cessation of the construction of new silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles. missiles and a freeze on the number of launchers on submarines at the time of signing.

In a private conversation, Leonid Ilyich told Nixon that he would like to establish a personal, trusting relationship with him. They signed the first nuclear arms limitation agreements. And Nixon invited Brezhnev to make a return visit.

Brezhnev, having visited America, was very impressed. He wanted to create conditions that would make war between the United States and the Soviet Union unthinkable. Moreover, they met him kindly, gave him a Lincoln. The American government did not have the funds to buy such an expensive car, so they asked several businessmen to chip in in the name of strengthening relations with Russia. Brezhnev liked America, he behaved confidently and freely. Since he did not take his wife with him, the stewardess of his personal plane spent two days with him. Brezhnev even introduced her to President Nixon, who did not raise an eyebrow.

During dinner with Nixon, a bottle of Stolichnaya, carefully stocked by the American president, was drunk. Brezhnev complained about how difficult it was for him in matters of disarmament and establishing good relations with the United States to convince his colleagues in the leadership - especially Podgorny and Kosygin.

This could be either a manifestation of sincerity, a desire to explain the situation in the Kremlin, or a kind of game: I’m in favor with both hands, but I’m not the only one who decides ... “Brezhnev,” Nixon recalled, “slapped his interlocutor on the knee, pushed his elbow in the ribs or hugged to give special meaning to the moment.

Soviet leaders experienced complex feelings towards the Americans - respect and contempt, envy and neglect. In Moscow, the presidential elections in the United States were having a hard time, not knowing how relations with the new owner of the White House would improve.

Brezhnev began to consider himself the man who made détente a reality. He liked it when the Western press wrote about him as a peacemaker. Other members of the Politburo either did not understand anything at all in world affairs, or were captive to some fantastic myths. They perceived détente as a cunning step in the fight against imperialism, and Brezhnev still forced the military to agree to limit nuclear weapons.

Moscow had no idea that American generals also opposed any restrictions and blamed Henry Kissinger and his diplomats for signing a document that was beneficial to the Soviets. Opposition also arose in Congress because Nixon and Kissinger acted alone and did not even try to get allies on Capitol Hill.

Detente went downhill after Nixon's forced departure from the White House. It all started with the fact that in Washington in the Watergate residential complex, where the headquarters of the Democratic Party was located, there was a burglary. The burglars got caught. They were locked up for a short time. It turned out that they were hired by rivals from the Republican Party - with the approval of the presidential apparatus.

“Nixon,” says Henry Kissinger, “was dominated by his relationship with the Kennedy family. Nixon would have given anything for the admiration John F. Kennedy received. Why did Nixon and his people go to eavesdrop on the conversations of the enemy, when the victory in the elections was already in their hands? But how could Nixon consider victory complete if it did not surpass the success of the hated, terrible and at the same time adored Kennedys? It was an act of retribution for imaginary injuries…”

Of course, I didn't know there was a break-in going on at Watergate,” Nixon said on television. - And I had nothing to do with subsequent attempts to hide the ends in the water.

In reality, Nixon was trying to interfere with the investigation so that the trail from the burglars would not lead to the White House. But in the United States, even the President cannot stop the investigation. Worse, this attempt was his undoing. Nixon believed that his reign would be outstanding, so every word should be preserved for history. And he didn't want his assistants to fool him by changing his mind. The White House has installed an automatic call recording system. She turned on as soon as someone started talking. Nixon didn't have to worry about starting the tape recorder. But he couldn't turn it off. He was the first to forget that the recording was going on, and in the quiet of the Oval Office he spoke frankly how to save the situation.

When, by order of the Supreme Court, he had to hand over to Congress tapes of his conversations with his closest aides regarding Watergate, it became clear that the president was lying. He was awaiting impeachment, that is, removal from office.

Even fellow party member Senator Barry Goldwater said indignantly:

He is the most dishonest person I have ever met in my life. President Nixon lied to his wife, his family, friends, congressional colleagues, party comrades, the American people, and the world.

When the impeachment proceedings began in Congress, Nixon suffered a nervous breakdown. In utter desperation, he told Kissinger:

They want to kill me. And they can do it. I can just die.

To avoid disgrace, Nixon resigned from the presidency. On August 8, speaking on television, he denied any guilt, but explained:

I have never been a person who leaves. The fact that I leave the White House before my term ends is opposed by every cell of my body. But as president, I have to think about America's interests first. So I'm resigning as president tomorrow at noon.

We leave in a great mood.

The honor guard saluted Richard Nixon for the last time. As he climbed the ladder, he turned and waved to his colleagues. This gesture, obviously intended as an encouragement, actually testified that his physical and spiritual strength had been exhausted.

Nixon was an intelligent and serious strategist. He changed the political map of the world when he went to China, when he improved relations with the Soviet Union and concluded the first agreements on nuclear arms control. But he was ruined by that habit of intrigues and intricate moves in big politics, the same Machiavelli-style tricks that made unexpected trips to Beijing and Moscow possible.

He was guided by the desire to get even with his opponents - it is necessary to make others afraid, otherwise they will tear him apart. He chose assistants to match his personality, and they gave free rein to the bad sides of his soul. He had no devil's advocate, only his own devils, and they consumed him.

In the first months after his resignation, the former president suffered from depression. Then he gradually returned to public life. He traveled and performed a lot. Wrote several books. It seemed that the country forgave him Watergate.

Gerald Ford, unexpectedly for himself, took the chair of vice president, and then just as suddenly became the owner of the White House, because his predecessors had to leave politics one by one.

Richard Nixon's vice president was Spiro Agnew. But suddenly it turned out that he underpaid taxes. Agnew resigned.

I'm innocent, Vice President Spiro Agnew argued, but I'm leaving because it's in the national interest.

After much deliberation, Nixon proposed to Congress that veteran legislator Gerald Ford be approved as the new vice president. Having taken the oath, the new vice uttered a phrase that became famous:

I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln.

He wanted to emphasize that he understands his place. Perhaps he was being modest. Soon Nixon had to leave because of the Watergate scandal, and Gerald Ford suddenly became President of the United States.

Outwardly rustic, Ford was a skilled administrator. Kind-hearted and benevolent, he also possessed common sense. You could speak to him frankly. He did not lose his calm and was not selfish. Gerald Ford got up at half past six in the morning, saying that "eating and sleeping is a waste of time." I did gymnastics and at eight I was already sitting in my office.

Ford played football professionally, served in the army during World War II, and graduated from Yale Law School. He was elected to the House of Representatives thirteen times. No one dared to call him a great intellectual, but, apparently, this is not the main quality for a president. According to his assistant Brent Scowcroft, the leader of the country needs the courage to make decisions and not deviate from them; Ford possessed these qualities.

The best person to work with, Henry Kissinger recalled, was Ford. Believe me, I have seen many presidents.

Gerald Ford, in a sense, saved America, which fell into despair because of the Watergate scandal. But the problem with Ford himself was that he was not chosen for this position, but appointed. And he did not consider himself invested with the trust of the people. Or, more precisely, he did not believe that he was capable of being a full-fledged president. When Ford believed in himself, it was too late. Sometimes a president has to be ruthless, cold-blooded and cruel. Ford had no such talents.

In the fall of 1975, President Ford was assassinated twice. Both times are women.

Saira Moore had been waiting for Ford for three hours and was about to leave to pick up her nine-year-old son from school when suddenly the President appeared. She fired as Ford walked from the hotel door to his limousine. The Secret Service asked him not to approach the crowd and shake hands. This saved him.

Saira Moore fired at close range, but her hand was pushed by a Vietnam veteran standing nearby, and the bullet missed. Gerald Ford was stuffed into a car and driven away. The agents practically lay on the president, covering him with their bodies. He then said:

And you guys are very heavy.

Saira Moore was divorced and raised her son alone. She was an FBI informant and at the same time sympathetic to the extreme left. Nothing worked in life. On the eve of the assassination attempt, the police detained her with a gun, but released her, confiscating the weapon. She dreamed of drawing attention to herself, her wish came true, but it cost her dearly ...

Lynette Fromm, who also wanted to kill Ford, was part of the gang of psychopath Manson, who was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of a pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others. She loved Manson and often said: "I'm ready to die for him and kill anyone." Lynette Fromm was going to destroy everyone who pollutes the world with waste.

The gun was borrowed from friends. While she was pulling out a gun, Secret Service agents noticed the weapon and surrounded the president from all sides. She pulled the trigger, but she didn't even manage to fire because she forgot to put the bullet in the chamber.

The Secret Service arrested five more people who wanted to kill Ford. Why did so many people turn against him? Ford was considered a good guy in the country - unlike Johnson and Nixon. It's impossible to explain. Sometimes there is a real epidemic of assassination attempts in the world.

In the Soviet Union, Gerald Ford was seen as a successor to Nixon's détente policy and was favored. In November 1974, President Ford flew to Vladivostok to meet with Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. The talks were on a very complicated topic - a new agreement on the limitation of strategic offensive arms was being discussed.

When Brezhnev left for the Far East, Politburo member Nikolai Podgorny remained senior in Moscow. He called Brezhnev in Vladivostok and said that, in the opinion of the military, the American proposals were unacceptable. Podgorny suggested postponing the meeting until next year, and during that time to put pressure on Washington. But Brezhnev and Gromyko believed that it was necessary to compromise with the Americans. Brezhnev insisted on his own, but these disputes with members of the Politburo cost him dearly. During the negotiations, he suffered a spasm of cerebral vessels.

After Vladivostok, Brezhnev's health deteriorated sharply. Gerald Ford's political health was even worse. He could not stand up to his Democratic rival Jimmy Carter. Ford's defeat became inevitable when the heated president blurted out in a debate:

Under the Ford administration, the Soviet Union did not and will not dominate Eastern Europe.

His rival Jimmy Carter just chuckled. The journalist who led the debate clung to Ford: does the president really think so?

“During the campaign, Carter criticized détente,” recalls US diplomat and historian Strobe Talbot. - He appointed Zbigniew Brzezinski as his national security adviser, whose name alone, with typical Slavic hissing sounds, embodied the particular bitterness of an emigrant from Eastern European countries. In the eyes of Moscow, he was the most dangerous kind of cold war knight…”

From the book History of Russia. XX - beginning of the XXI century. Grade 9 author Volobuev Oleg Vladimirovich

§ 39. PARADOXES OF DESETTING FROM THE “AGE OF BATTLE” TO THE “AGE OF NEGOTIATIONS”. The objective basis of such a transition was the fact that by the beginning of the 70s. military-strategic parity, when the USSR overtook the United States in terms of the number of strategic carriers of nuclear weapons (they became

From the book Course of Russian History (Lectures LXII-LXXXVI) author Klyuchevsky Vasily Osipovich

Unrest among the nobility The election of Duchess Anna by the Supreme Privy Council, soon becoming famous, caused an extraordinary movement in Moscow. An accidental circumstance gave it not a local, only Moscow, but also an all-Russian significance. On the same day, January 19, when he died

From the book of the Battle of the Third Reich. Memoirs of the highest ranks of the generals of Nazi Germany author Liddell Garth Basil Henry

A split of minds The conquest of the West, which, as we now think, could not be resisted, actually took place in an atmosphere of doubt and fear. The previous period was called by the Americans a "strange war" in mockery of the inertia of the allies. It was hardly

From the book GRU Empire. Book 2 author

Military intelligence and the era of détente

From the book of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministers of Foreign Affairs. Secret diplomacy of the Kremlin author Mlechin Leonid Mikhailovich

The Decline of Detente In November 1974, American President Gerald Ford flew to Vladivostok to meet with Brezhnev.

From the book World History without complexes and stereotypes. Volume 2 author Gitin Valery Grigorievich

Fermentation of minds Philosophy at all times has played the role of a kind of X-ray apparatus, the rays of which penetrate into the deep essence of phenomena and reveal the patterns of interaction of all principles and all opposites - in Nature, in the character of a person and in his communication with himself

From the book Secrets of Troubled Epochs the author Mironov Sergey

CONFUSION OF MIND AND REBELLION Wonderful things were happening in Moscow. Until recently, Tsar "Dmitry" was greeted with jubilation. And now, after a three-day disgrace, his mutilated and spitting corpse was taken out of the city and, thrown into a pit, nailed to the ground with a stake so that the "sorcerer" could not rise from

From the book THE MAIN ENEMY author Kolpakidi Alexander Ivanovich

The end of détente Nevertheless, the disarmament process had its momentum, and after numerous Soviet-American negotiations and consultations, Brezhnev and Carter finally signed the SALT II disarmament treaty in June 1979. Needless to say, he resisted this with all his might.

author Zubok Vladislav Martinovich

Chapter 6. Fermentation in the rear, 1953-1968 The Soviet way of life is capable of generating its enemies. He himself is able to generate and educate, feed and support his opponents ... From the diary of the historian Sergei Dmitriev, October 1958 A missile crisis raged in the Caribbean Sea, which put

From the book Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev author Zubok Vladislav Martinovich

Chapter 8 IMPERIAL INERTIA, 1973-1979 We have nothing and nobody to fear, except our own laxity, laziness, indiscipline. V. Molotov, May 1972 On the eve of Christmas 1979, an event occurred that changed the course of world history: Soviet tanks entered Afghanistan.

author

From the book From the USSR to Russia. The history of the unfinished crisis. 1964–1994 author Boff Giuseppe

From the book History of Russia. Time of Troubles author Morozova Lyudmila Evgenievna

Confusion of Minds It soon became clear that neither tsarist, nor boyar, nor even patriarchal letters had any effect on the minds of people living in remote cities. In the Seversk cities and in the Lower Volga region, in the summer of 1606, an uprising broke out. Putivl became the center of the new turmoil. Local

From the book Ukraine. Waiting for the inevitable author Pogrebinsky Mikhail Borisovich

Minsk meeting is a step towards détente (Izvestia v Ukraine, 29.08.14) On the eve of the EU-CU-Ukraine meeting in Minsk, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Valeriy Chaly offered to “keep fists” for the positive outcome of the negotiations for Ukraine. However, besides him ,

From the book From the USSR to Russia. The history of the unfinished crisis. 1964-1994 author Boff Giuseppe

The end of detente Signs of degradation in foreign policy were observed no less than in domestic. Partly they stemmed from errors in the calculations of the Soviet leaders. The Helsinki Conference and its Final Act were an undoubted success for USSR diplomacy, as well as

From the book Life and customs of tsarist Russia author Anishkin V. G.