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 Stalin died in 1953 and Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet Premier in  “Destalinization” started – purging society of Stalin’s memory  Khrushchev was more moderate and believed the USSR could beat the US economically 3

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 Leonid Brezhnev became Soviet Premier in 1964  He was more like Stalin and limited rights for the Soviet people  Brezhnev Doctrine – USSR could use force to keep satellite nations from turning away from Communism 5

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 Gorbachev took over soon after Brezhnev’s death in 1982  He was younger and more reform minded  glasnost  a policy of openness to ideas and information  perestroika  restructuring the Soviet economy with less decisions being made by the Soviet state and more locally  democratization  policy to open up the political system 7

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 Followed policy of containment and “domino theory”  Started build up of nuclear weapons under Eisenhower (“new look military”)  Emphasized American economic superiority – US was prosperous and free in society 9

 Brinkmanship replaced containment (taking nation to the brink of war without backing down)  U-2 incident heightened tensions  Cuban Missile Crisis  example of brinkmanship and made use of nuclear weapons a real possibility  Vietnam War took center stage and was major campaign of Cold War 10

 Followed policy of détente (lessening of tensions)  Also realpolitik (dealing with each other realistically)  Nixon visited China and the USSR  SALT I  limited numbers of ICBMs and submarine missiles 11

 Détente had fallen apart with the two previous presidents  Reagan was a “cold warrior” – fiercely anti- communist  Increased military spending  SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative)  NUTS  Nuclear Utilization Theory (you could survive a nuclear attack with “acceptable” casualties) 12

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 Dissent was getting stronger in Soviet satellite nations (even as early as 1956 in Hungary and 1968 in Czechoslovakia)  Gorbachev had loosened the grip of the Communist Party on all parts of Soviet life  The USSR could not keep up with the military spending of the US  December of 1991, the USSR ceased to exist (broke apart) 14

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