The Cold War from 1979 to 1985 was a late phase of the Cold War marked by a sharp increase in hostility between the Soviet Union and the West. It arose from a strong denunciation of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. With the election of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979, and American president Ronald Reagan in 1980, a corresponding change in Western foreign policy approach toward the Soviet Union was marked by the rejection of détente in favor of the Reagan Doctrine policy of rollback, with the stated goal of dissolving Soviet influence in Soviet Bloc countries. During this time, the threat of nuclear war had reached new heights not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan following the Saur Revolution in that country, ultimately leading to the deaths of around one million civilians. Mujahideen fighters succeeded in forcing a Soviet military withdrawal in 1989. In response, U.S. president Jimmy Carter announced a U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In 1984, the Soviet Union responded with its own boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Tensions increased when the U.S. announced they would deploy Pershing II missiles in West Germany, followed by Reagan's announcement of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative and were further exacerbated in 1983 when Reagan branded the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
In April 1983, the United States Navy conducted FleetEx '83-1, the largest fleet exercise held to date in the North Pacific. The conglomeration of approximately forty ships with 23,000 crewmembers and 300 aircraft, was arguably the most powerful naval armada ever assembled. U.S. aircraft and ships attempted to provoke the Soviets into reacting, allowing U.S. Naval Intelligence to study Soviet radar characteristics, aircraft capabilities, and tactical maneuvers. On April 4, at least six U.S. Navy aircraft flew over one of the Kurile Islands, Zeleny Island, the largest of a set of islets called the Habomai Islands. The Soviets were outraged and ordered a retaliatory overflight of the Aleutian Islands. The Soviet Union also issued a formal diplomatic note of protest, which accused the United States of repeated penetrations of Soviet airspace. In the following September, the civilian airliner Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was downed by Soviet fighter jets over nearby Moneron Island.
In November 1983, NATO conducted a military exercise known as "Able Archer 83". The realistic simulation of a nuclear attack by NATO forces caused considerable alarm in the USSR and is regarded by many historians to be the closest the world came to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This period of the Cold War would encompass the first term of American president Ronald Reagan (1981–1985), the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, and the brief interim period of Soviet leadership consisting of Yuri Andropov (1982–1984) and Konstantin Chernenko (1984–1985). This phase in the Cold War concluded in 1985 with the ascension of reform-minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who possessed a commitment to reduce tensions between the East and the West and to bring about major reforms in Soviet society.
While this period is sometimes referred to as the "New Cold War" or "Second Cold War," it is distinct from the increased geopolitical tensions in the 21st century that have been referred to by similar names.
Prelude: A decade of detente
During the 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union had pursued a policy of détente, whereby both sides trying to improve their geopolitical situation while minimizing the risk of direct war between the superpowers. Extensive trade ties were established between nations of both blocs, to the point that approximately 70 percent of the Soviet Union's grain came from the United States. In 1975, steps to expand political ties between NATO and Soviet-bloc nations (i.e. Ostpolitik) culminated in the signing of the Helsinki Accords. Additionally, several major arms control agreements were signed, such as SALT I & II.
Additionally, efforts were taken by the United States to secure a peace treaty to end its participation in the Vietnam War. To this end, Nixon attempted to induce China to support the peace process and proceeded to make a historic trip to the communist nation. While this outreach to China would ultimately fail to avert communist victory in the Vietnam War, it is still regarded one of the most important geopolitical acts of the 20th century, fundamentally altering the Cold War dynamic between the U.S. and the USSR.
While such efforts toward détente were generally supported by the publics of both sides (for example 68 percent of Americans believed that Nixon's China Trip would improve world peace) there were still critics of such efforts. In the United States, conservatives such as Barry Goldwater condemned détente, going on to say, "Our objective must be the destruction of the enemy as an ideological force possessing the means of power" and warning that trade with the Soviet Union assists in the maintenance of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. American opposition to détente was also shared by members of the American left, such as Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who believed the Soviet Union needed to be aggressively confronted by the United States. Despite these criticisms, détente continued throughout the 1970s, enjoying support from members of both sides of the American political divide, with both parties nominating pro-détente candidates in the 1976 presidential election (President Ford vs. Governor Jimmy Carter.)
In Western Europe, there was also some opposition to détente. As a consequence of West German chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik, the West German government repudiated all claims east of the Oder-Niesse river, forfeiting claims historic German territory that had been lost at the end of World War II. While this move helped ease fears of German revanchism against the Soviet Union and Poland, it drew criticism from Brandt's chief opponent, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU.)
In the Soviet Union itself, dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov (also former member of the Soviet nuclear program), warned that Western security was threatened if détente wasn't accompanied by liberalization in the Soviet Union. Soviet and Eastern human rights activists came under renewed assault during this time period by communist intelligence services, such as the KGB. The absence of significant western criticism of continued human rights abuses resulted in rising discontent among Eastern European dissidents, with Czech playwright (and future president) Vachlav Havel labeling détente as "naive, thickheaded."
Collapse of détente
This era of relative cooperation wasn't without conflict. Throughout the era of détente, both sides continued their stockpiling of nuclear weapons, along with delivery systems for those weapons. The emergence of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) radically increased both the Soviet Union's and the United States' killing capacity in the event of a nuclear war and increased the possibility of a preventive strike. SALT II was signed in 1979 in an attempt to contain the expansion of MIRVs. However, this treaty wasn't ratified by the U.S. Senate due to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in December of that year.
Both the Soviet Union and the United States had taken an interest in Afghanistan during the Cold War vying for influence in the neutral mountainous country. To this end, both the Soviet Union and the United States undertook massive infrastructure projects in the underdeveloped nation. So generous was superpower aid that the Afghan prime minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal once said that, "he could light his American cigarettes with Russian matches."
Afghanistan witnessed a period of rising political instability that began with the overthrow of King Zahir Shah in 1973. During the period, Afghanistan witnessed a massive growth in the size of its communist movement, particularly in the ranks of the Afghan military. This culminated in the 1978 Saur Revolution, where by members of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, a Soviet-backed Marxist–Leninist party, seized power in a bloody coup.
The communists initiated a radical social and political revolution which saw the liquidation of large numbers of dissidents and "class enemies." The coup and subsequent political violence provoked a civil war between the Marxist state and its non-communist opponents, which included, among others, radical Islamists. The deterioration of the communists military position prompted the Soviet Union to intervene in the conflict. The entrance of the Soviet Union into the Afghanistan War is widely credited with ending support for détente and provoked a series of retaliatory responses from the United States, such as the aforementioned withdrawal from SALT II, as well as the imposition of a grain embargo, the boycotting of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, and the beginning of weapons sales to Afghan anti-Soviet rebels. Additionally, it diplomatically isolated the Soviet Union on the world stage, particularly in the Middle East.
The election of Ronald Reagan is widely heralded as a turning point in the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. According to Henry Kissinger, Reagan was "the first postwar President to take the offensive both ideologically and strategically." While Carter had initiated a military buildup after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, it would be under the Reagan Administration that the United States would aggressively buildup its conventional and nuclear stockpile, marking a renewed period of competition in place of cooperation.
Rollback doctrine
In 1984, journalist Nicholas Lemann interviewed Reagan secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger and summarized the strategy of the Reagan administration to roll back the Soviet Union:
Lemann notes that when he wrote that in 1984, he thought the Reaganites were living in a fantasy world. But in 2016, he says, that passage represents "a fairly uncontroversial description of what Reagan actually did."
The Reagan strategy also included escalating conflicts the Soviets were involved in, especially the Soviet–Afghan War and the Central American crisis. It included diplomatic moves to persuade Western European governments to host American missiles pointed at the Soviet Union. Additionally, it included an attempt to construct a space based anti-ballistic missile defense known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (However many critics dubbed it "Star Wars.")
The strategies were continued until the Revolutions of 1989. People in the Eastern European satellite states revolted against their dictatorships and became parliamentary democracies. The Russian people ended their communist system in 1991. Without support from Moscow, many subsidized communist movements in the Asia, Africa, and Latin America virtually collapsed. In the 21st century, only China, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba remain.
Polish crisis (1980–1981)
In the 1970s, the Polish economy had experienced a period of declining productivity, culminating in the nation's first post-WWII recession in 1979. In 1980, striking workers at the Gdansk Shipyard announced the formation of Solidarity, a non-communist trade union. On August 31, 1980, the Polish government agreed to many of the union's demands, including its legalization, making Solidarity (now 10 million members strong) the first trade union in the Warsaw Pact to not be under the control of the communist government.
Throughout the following year, Poland experienced growing political chaos as the Solidarity protests spread across the country, threatening the survival of the communist state. On December 13, 1981, General Jaruzelski, head of the Polish military, declared a state of martial law across Poland, ordering the arrest of members of Solidarity and other opposition organizations.
During the period leading up to the declaration of martial law by Poland's government, there was speculation on both sides of the Iron Curtain about the specter of a Soviet military intervention in the crisis, similar to previous Soviet interventions in Eastern Europe (i.e. Hungarian Revolution, Prague Spring.) However, the Soviets ultimately decided against direct intervention in Poland out of fear of western economic sanctions on the Soviet Union.
Poland would remain in a state of martial law until 1984, when the Polish government began gradually releasing members of the Polish opposition from prison. The conflict between Solidarity and the Jaruzelski government would ultimately come to an end in 1989, with the democratization of Poland and the defeat of the ruling communist party in Poland's first free post-World War II elections.
Nuclear buildup (1981–1983)
During the 1970s, the Soviet Union had developed a new class of intermediate range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. By the end of 1979, it deployed 130 SS-20 missiles capable of launching over 390 warheads to the western part of the Soviet Union and to allied Warsaw Pact states. This move set off alarms in the NATO alliance, which was dependent upon tactical nuclear superiority to offset the Soviets conventional superiority.
In order to enhance the nuclear deterrence of the NATO alliance, member states committed to deploy several hundred missiles to Western Europe, mainly Pershing II.
Technological developments
During the Cold War prior to the 1970s and 1980s, the primary heavy strategic bomber of the United States Air Force was the B-52 Stratofortress. However, the development of more sophisticated Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) technology rendered the B-52 more vulnerable to attacks from the ground and enemy fighters. The Air Force saw a need for a bomber that could go faster, was more maneuverable, and could still deliver a substantial payload to its target. This led to the development of the B-1A Lancer in the early to mid 1970s. The B-1A program was cancelled in 1977 but was later brought back by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 under its new and current designation, the B-1B. The B-1B is capable of speeds at or above Mach 1.2 and can deliver a payload of 75,000 pounds. The Lancer was a nuclear capable bomber until 1994 when the nuclear mission for the bomber was cancelled, and it was switched to conventional weapons.
Another weapon that was produced during this time frame was the Pershing II medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM). The Pershing II was first deployed in Europe in 1983. It had a range of around 1,000 miles and carried a single W-85 variable yield nuclear warhead, which had a yield between five and 80 kilotons. Although this warhead has a smaller yield than the W-50 warhead (up to 150 kilotons), the increased accuracy of the Pershing II missile meant that there was not a need for large yield warheads. Instead, the missile was capable of striking very close to its target using its radar and inertial guidance units.
Nuclear false alarms and close calls
"Never, perhaps, in the postwar decades has the situation in the world been as explosive and, hence, more difficult and unfavorable as in the first half of the 1980s." - Mikhail Gorbachev, February 1986