Test Your KnowledgeCounts towards your progress stats Flash Cards15 cards for this lesson

Conventional War and the Development of 'New' Wars, 1976-2000 » Star Wars and the End of the Nuclear Arms Race

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B6, Key topic 4

Why new missiles in Europe made the early 1980s so tense
What the Strategic Defense Initiative ('Star Wars') was
How Gorbachev, the INF Treaty and START ended the nuclear arms race
How to answer a "two causes" question

🔒 Unlock Full Course Content

Unlock This Course

A new arms race in Europe

This lesson is part of the Paper 2 Section B breadth study on the changing nature of warfare, 1919-2011. From 1945 the USA and the USSR built more and more nuclear weapons. Both sides then agreed limits in the 1970s, and for a time it looked as if the race was slowing. Around 1980 it speeded up again, and the new danger was in Europe.

From the late 1970s the USSR began to deploy the SS-20, a mobile missile with three warheads that could hit targets across Western Europe. NATO, the western alliance, saw this as a threat. In December 1979 NATO decided to place American missiles in Western Europe from 1983 unless the USSR agreed to remove the SS-20s. When the talks failed, the missiles arrived in 1983, including cruise missiles at Greenham Common in Britain.

Key terms:

Intermediate-range missile: a nuclear missile with a range shorter than an intercontinental missile, but long enough to cross a continent. The SS-20 and the American Pershing II were both of this type.
Cruise missile: a small, guided missile that flies low to the ground, which makes it hard to detect.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI): President Reagan's 1983 plan for a defence system to destroy enemy missiles before they hit the USA. It was nicknamed 'Star Wars'.
INF Treaty: the 1987 agreement to destroy all land-based intermediate-range missiles. INF stands for Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces.
START: the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991, which cut the long-range weapons of both sides.

🚀 The weapons

The American Pershing II and cruise missiles could reach Soviet targets with very little warning. The USSR feared a surprise strike, and NATO feared the SS-20s. Each side's weapons made the other side more nervous.

📢 The protests

Many people in Europe were alarmed that their countries could become the battlefield of a nuclear war. Large peace marches took place, and from 1981 women set up a peace camp outside the base at Greenham Common to protest against the cruise missiles.

'Star Wars'

Ronald Reagan became US president in 1981 and spoke of the USSR in very hostile terms. On 23 March 1983 he announced the Strategic Defense Initiative. The idea was to use satellites, lasers and other new technology in space to shoot down missiles after they had been fired. Critics gave it the nickname 'Star Wars', after a popular film.

Supporters said it would protect the USA and make nuclear war less likely.
Critics said the technology did not exist and might never work.
The USSR feared that the USA could attack first and then use SDI to block the Soviet reply. If so, deterrence (each side being too frightened to attack) would stop working.
The USSR could not easily afford a new space race. Its economy was weak.

SDI was never built in the form Reagan described. Even so, it made the Soviet leaders more worried, and later it became a major issue at the arms talks.

Gorbachev and the end of the arms race

Everything changed after Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader in 1985. He wanted to reform the USSR, whose economy was struggling, and he could not afford to keep paying for an arms race. He was ready to make deals.

1985-86: Gorbachev and Reagan met several times. At a summit in Reykjavik in Iceland in October 1986 they came close to agreeing deep cuts in nuclear weapons, but the talks broke down because Reagan would not give up SDI.
8 December 1987: Reagan and Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty in Washington. All American and Soviet land-based missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometres were to be destroyed, including the SS-20s, Pershing IIs and ground-launched cruise missiles. Nearly 2,700 missiles were scrapped. The treaty allowed each side to inspect the other's sites.
31 July 1991: Gorbachev and the American president, George H. W. Bush, signed START. It limited each side to 6,000 warheads on their long-range weapons.

This was a real change. The earlier arms control talks of the 1970s had only limited the growth of weapons. The INF Treaty destroyed a whole class of weapon, and START made large cuts in the weapons both sides kept. By the end of 1991 the Cold War was over, because the USSR broke up in December.

What changed was the direction: from building more weapons to scrapping them. What stayed the same was that each side still kept thousands of nuclear warheads, so the threat of nuclear war was reduced but not removed.

Common mistakes

Saying 'Star Wars' was a real weapon system that worked. It was a plan, and it was never built as described.
Saying the INF Treaty got rid of all nuclear weapons. It only banned one type, the land-based intermediate-range missiles.
Mixing up the INF Treaty (1987) with START (1991). INF removed one class of missile; START cut long-range weapons.

Exam-style question

Explain TWO causes of the INF Treaty of 1987. [8 marks]

Remember: one cause alone cannot score more than half marks. For each cause, name it, give precise evidence and then explain how it led to the treaty.

Model answer

One cause of the INF Treaty was Gorbachev's need to reform the Soviet Union. When he became leader in 1985 the Soviet economy was weak, and the arms race was very expensive. Gorbachev wanted to cut military spending so that he could concentrate on reform, so he was willing to make concessions, such as agreeing to destroy the SS-20 missiles. This led to the treaty because the USSR was now ready to accept the cuts that the USA wanted.

A second cause was the tension created by the new missiles in Europe and the American Strategic Defense Initiative. After 1983 American Pershing II and cruise missiles faced the USSR, and Reagan's 'Star Wars' plan made the Soviets fear that the USA wanted an advantage. Large protests in Europe also showed that people wanted the danger reduced. This led to the treaty because both sides had reason to remove the intermediate-range missiles, and the talks at Reykjavik in 1986 had already shown that large cuts were possible.

What lifts it to the top level: two different causes, each with precise facts and a clear link showing how it led to the treaty.

Exam tip

In a "two causes" question, use one paragraph per cause and end each with a sentence beginning "This led to the treaty because...". That sentence turns facts into explanation.

Recap

The SS-20 and the American Pershing II and cruise missiles made Europe tense around 1980.
Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, or 'Star Wars', on 23 March 1983.
Gorbachev wanted reform and cuts in spending, and talked with Reagan from 1985.
The INF Treaty (8 December 1987) destroyed a whole class of missiles, and START (July 1991) cut long-range warheads.

Test Your Knowledge