The End of the Cold War
About
This lecture covers the period of time leading up to and following the Cold War Era, which lasted from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 through the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 31, 1991.
The Cold War gave the United States the ability to have a dialectical relationship with their ultimate other, the Soviet Union. However, the question remained as to who was to take that place of the other once the Soviet Union no longer posed a threat. The discussion includes specific instances that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev and the intentional conflict created in the Middle East to take the place of the Soviet Union as a strategic military focus for the United States.
In continuing with the theme of this lecture series, this discussion names specific players, existing behind the scenes, making national and foreign policy decisions on the part of the United States.
Readings:
- Daniel Sheehan, Paradigm Politics, End of the Cold War
- The George H.W. Bush Memo delivered to Saddam Hussein by April Gillaspie on July 25, 1990 “Green Lighting” Saddam’s Invasion of Kuwait
http://original.antiwar.com/jason/2011/01/19/glaspiememorefutesclaimsleakeddocswereclassifiedforsecurity ; Congressional Record, January 26, 2011, Page H503. - The 1992 United States Defense Department Policy Planning Guidance Document (Feb. 1992 version #1: http://work.colum.edu/~amiller/wolfowitz1992.htm ;
- http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb245/index.htm