Ronald Raegan: The 2nd Cold War

Question 1

When was Ronald Raegan elected as US president?

Answer 1

1981

Question 2

What were the 4 main attitudes Raegan had towards the Cold War?

Answer 2

1. Defence Spending
2. Eradicate humiliation from Vietnam war
3. Gain superiority over USSR
4. Overthrow communism

Question 3

What is meant by mutually assured destruction?

Answer 3

MAD is a doctrine of military strategy whereby use of nuclear weapons between two opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both sides.

Question 4

What was the strategic defence initiative (Star Wars)?

Answer 4

A plan to have satellites in space that would destroy Soviet nuclear missiles before they reached the USA

Question 5

Why did Raegan launch Star Wars?

Answer 5

He wanted to win the cold war and so he launched star wars in order to try and out spend the Russians and keep the arms race going.

Question 6

Raegan made no efforts to get détente up and running again, how did he describe the USSR?

Answer 6

As the ‘Evil Empire’

Question 7

What did the US pour a lot of money and effort into in the 1980s and why?

Answer 7

Technology (computing and missiles) because he wanted to kick-start the arms race again and outspend the Russians.

Question 8

What was the crisis in the USSR during this period down to?

Answer 8

Economy being in poor shape due to too much spending on weapons (arms race)

Question 9

What was the significance of the Vietnam War?

Answer 9

It made the USA look weak and humiliated the West’s power because they didn’t achieve any military victory + it was a disaster.