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Do not fill this in! ===US and USSR military and economic issues=== {{Further|Era of Stagnation|Strategic Defense Initiative|RSD-10 Pioneer|MGM-31 Pershing}} [[File:US and USSR nuclear stockpiles.svg|thumb|US and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles, 1945–2006]] The Soviet Union had built up a military that consumed as much as 25 percent of its gross national product at the expense of [[Consumer goods in the Soviet Union|consumer goods]] and investment in civilian sectors.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=332}} Soviet spending on the [[arms race]] and other Cold War commitments both caused and exacerbated deep-seated structural problems in the Soviet system,{{sfn|Towle|p=159}} which experienced at least [[Era of Stagnation|a decade of economic stagnation]] during the late Brezhnev years. Soviet investment in the defense sector was not driven by military necessity but in large part by the interests of the [[nomenklatura]], which was dependent on the sector for their own power and privileges.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=335}} The [[Soviet Armed Forces]] became the largest in the world in terms of the numbers and types of weapons they possessed, in the number of troops in their ranks, and in the sheer size of their [[Military–industrial complex|military–industrial base]].{{sfn|Odom|2000|p=1}} However, the quantitative advantages held by the Soviet military often concealed areas where the Eastern Bloc dramatically lagged behind the West.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=340}} For example, the [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]] demonstrated how the [[Vehicle armour|armor]], [[Fire-control system|fire control systems]], and firing range of the Soviet Union's most common main battle tank, the [[T-72]], were drastically inferior to the American [[M1 Abrams]], yet the USSR fielded almost three times as many T-72s as the US deployed M1s.{{sfn|Evans|1992}} [[File:SDIO Delta Star.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Delta 183 launch vehicle lifts off, carrying the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] sensor experiment "Delta Star".]] By the early 1980s, the USSR had built up a military arsenal and army surpassing that of the United States. Soon after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter began massively building up the United States military. This buildup was accelerated by the Reagan administration, which increased the military spending from 5.3 percent of GNP in 1981 to 6.5 percent in 1986,{{sfn|Carliner|Alesina|1991|p=6}} the largest peacetime defense buildup in United States history.{{sfn|Feeney|2006}} The American-Soviet tensions present during 1983 was defined by some as the start of "Cold War II". Whilst in retrospective this phase of the Cold War was generally defined as a "war of words",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB426/docs/3.The%201983%20War%20Scare%20in%20U.S.%20Soviet%20Relations-circa%201996.pdf|title=The 1983 War Scare in US-Soviet Relations|first=Ben B.|last=Fischer|publisher=National Security Archive|access-date=21 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328151950/http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB426/docs/3.The%201983%20War%20Scare%20in%20U.S.%20Soviet%20Relations-circa%201996.pdf|archive-date=28 March 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> the Soviet's "peace offensive" was largely rejected by the West.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/22/spotlight/ |title= War Games: Soviets, Fearing Western Attack, Prepared for Worst in '83 |publisher= [[CNN]] |first= Bruce |last= Kennedy |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081219114101/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/22/spotlight/ |archive-date= 19 December 2008 }}</ref> Tensions continued to intensify as Reagan revived the [[Rockwell B-1 Lancer|B-1 Lancer]] program, which had been canceled by the Carter administration, produced [[LGM-118 Peacekeeper]] missiles,{{sfn|Federation of American Scientists|2000}} installed US cruise missiles in Europe, and announced the experimental [[Strategic Defense Initiative]], dubbed "Star Wars" by the media, a defense program to shoot down missiles in mid-flight.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}<!-- Lakoff, p. 263 citation not found --> The Soviets deployed [[RSD-10 Pioneer]] [[ballistic missile]]s targeting Western Europe, and NATO decided, under the impetus of the Carter presidency, to deploy [[MGM-31 Pershing]] and cruise missiles in Europe, primarily West Germany.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=202}} This deployment placed missiles just 10 minutes' striking distance from Moscow.{{sfn|Garthoff|1994|pp=881–882}} After Reagan's military buildup, the Soviet Union did not respond by further building its military,{{sfn|Lebow|Stein|1994}} because the enormous military expenses, along with inefficient [[Planned economy|planned manufacturing]] and [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|collectivized agriculture]], were already a heavy burden for the [[Economy of the Soviet Union|Soviet economy]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Allen|first=Robert C.|date=November 2001|title=The rise and decline of the Soviet economy|journal=Canadian Journal of Economics|volume=34|issue=4|pages=859–881|doi=10.1111/0008-4085.00103|issn=0008-4085}}</ref><!-- Gaidar 2007 pp. 190–205 citation not found}} --> At the same time, [[Saudi Arabia]] increased oil production,<ref name="Gaidar">{{cite book |last1=Gaĭdar |first1=E. T. |title=Collapse of an empire : lessons for modern Russia |date=2007 |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=9780815731146 |pages=190–205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDSfnxYjVwAC&pg=PA102}}</ref> even as other non-OPEC nations were increasing production.{{efn-ua|"[http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/contents.html Official Energy Statistics of the US Government]", EIA – International Energy Data and Analysis. Retrieved on 4 July 2008.}} These developments contributed to the [[1980s oil glut]], which affected the Soviet Union as oil was the main source of Soviet export revenues.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=332}} Issues with [[Planned economy#Command economy|command economics]],{{sfn|Hardt|Kaufman|1995|p=1}} oil price decreases and large military expenditures gradually brought the Soviet economy to stagnation.<ref name="Gaidar"/> [[File:USSR stamp S.Smith 1985 5k.jpg|thumb|upright|After ten-year-old American [[Samantha Smith]] wrote a letter to [[Yuri Andropov]] expressing her fear of nuclear war, Andropov invited Smith to the Soviet Union.]] On 1 September 1983, the Soviet Union shot down [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007]], a [[Boeing 747]] with 269 people aboard, including sitting Congressman [[Larry McDonald]], an action which Reagan characterized as a massacre. The airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul but owing to a navigational mistake made by the crew, it drifted from its original planned route and flew through Russian [[prohibited airspace]] past the west coast of [[Sakhalin|Sakhalin Island]] near [[Moneron Island]]. The [[Soviet Air Force]] treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S. [[Surveillance aircraft|spy plane]] and destroyed it with [[air-to-air missiles]]. The Soviet Union found the wreckage under the sea two weeks later on September 15 and found the [[flight recorder]]s in October, but this information was kept secret by the Soviet authorities until after the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|country's collapse]].<ref name="tapes">{{cite press release |url=http://legacy.icao.int/icao/en/nr/1993/pio199301_e.pdf |title=KAL Tapes To Be Handed Over To ICAO |date=January 1993 |publisher=[[International Civil Aviation Organization]] |access-date=January 31, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209114516/http://legacy.icao.int/icao/en/nr/1993/pio199301_e.pdf |archive-date=December 9, 2012 }}</ref> The incident increased support for military deployment, overseen by Reagan, which stood in place until the later accords between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.{{sfn|Talbott|Hannifin|Magnuson|Doerner|1983}} During the early hours of 26 September 1983, the [[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident]] occurred; systems in [[Serpukhov-15]] underwent a glitch that claimed several [[intercontinental ballistic missile]]s were heading towards Russia, but officer [[Stanislav Petrov]] correctly suspected it was a [[false alarm]], ensuring the Soviets did not respond to the non-existent attack.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/shatter021099b.htm |title= I Had A Funny Feeling in My Gut |first= David |last= Hoffman |newspaper= The Washington Post|date= 10 February 1999 |access-date= 18 April 2006 }}</ref> As such, he has been credited as "the man who saved the world".<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/18/stanislav-petrov-the-man-who-quietly-saved-the-world-has-died-aged-77-6937015/|title=Stanislav Petrov – the man who quietly saved the world – has died aged 77|date=18 September 2017|work=Metro|access-date=11 May 2022|language=en-GB}}</ref> The [[Able Archer 83]] exercise in November 1983, a realistic simulation of a coordinated NATO nuclear release, was perhaps the most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the Soviet leadership feared that a nuclear attack might be imminent.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=228}} American domestic public concerns about intervening in foreign conflicts persisted from the end of the Vietnam War.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=323}} The Reagan administration emphasized the use of quick, low-cost [[counterinsurgency]] tactics to intervene in foreign conflicts.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=323}} In 1983, the Reagan administration intervened in the multisided [[Lebanese Civil War]], [[United States invasion of Grenada|invaded Grenada]], [[1986 United States bombing of Libya|bombed Libya]] and backed the Central American [[Contras]], anti-communist paramilitaries seeking to overthrow the Soviet-aligned [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] government in Nicaragua.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=212}} While Reagan's interventions against Grenada and Libya were popular in the United States, his backing of the Contra rebels was [[Iran–Contra affair|mired in controversy]].{{sfn|Reagan|1991}} The Reagan administration's backing of the military government of [[Guatemala]] during the [[Guatemalan Civil War]], in particular the regime of [[Efraín Ríos Montt]], was also controversial.{{sfn|New York Times|2013}} Meanwhile, the Soviets incurred high costs for their own foreign interventions. Although Brezhnev was convinced in 1979 that the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet war in Afghanistan]] would be brief, Muslim guerrillas, aided by the US, China, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,{{sfn|Kinsella|1992}} waged a fierce resistance against the invasion.{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=314}} The Kremlin sent nearly 100,000 troops to support its puppet regime in Afghanistan, leading many outside observers to dub the war "the Soviets' Vietnam".{{sfn|LaFeber|2002|p=314}} However, Moscow's quagmire in Afghanistan was far more disastrous for the Soviets than Vietnam had been for the Americans because the conflict coincided with a period of internal decay and domestic crisis in the Soviet system. A senior [[United States Department of State|US State Department]] official predicted such an outcome as early as 1980, positing that the invasion resulted in part from a: {{blockquote|...domestic crisis within the Soviet {{nowrap|system. ... It}} may be that the thermodynamic law of [[entropy]] {{nowrap|has ... caught}} up with the Soviet system, which now seems to expend more energy on simply maintaining its equilibrium than on improving itself. We could be seeing a period of foreign movement at a time of internal decay.{{sfn|Dobrynin|2001|pp=438–439}}}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page