Cold War Intensifies

 United Nations partition plan 1947  Recognized by both super-powers, the US and the Soviet Union  President Truman recognized the state of Israel, going against most of his advisors

Egypt put troops along Israel’s border and Israel launched a pre-emptive strike; Jordan and Syria joined Egypt

Israel took control of the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip (from Egypt); the Golan Heights (from Syria); and the West Bank (from Jordan);

Egypt and Syria attack Israel; Nixon Administration sided with Israel, Arab nations retaliated with an oil embargo that caused serious shortages in US.

 Palestinians displaced when Israel was created in the 1940s  Arab countries refusal to admit Israel’s right to exist;  Israel settling territories it gained in the Six Day War

President Jimmy Carter negotiates peace in Middle East calls Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat and Israeli leader Menachim Begin to Camp David in Maryland Thirteen-day negotiations

Signed at the White House in 1979, brokered by Carter Israel agreed to gradual withdrawal from Sinai Peninsula. Egypt first Arab nation to recognize Israel.

In the 1950s, the CIA had helped overthrow Iranian government, and the Shah of Iran was installed; In 1979, a revolution against the westernized and dictatorial shah resulted in a Shiite Islamic fundamentalist government (Ayatollah Khomeini)

 Extremely anti- American

Carter admitted the Shah to the US for medical treatment It was demanded that the Shah be returned to Iran. Carter froze Iranian assets in US banks and placed an embargo on Iranian oil.

November 1979, the US Embassy in Iran was broken into and sixty Americans were seized.

In April 1980 Carter sent a small military operation into Iran, but the rescue mission failed and hostages remained prisoners until January the wreckage

 Carter loses election in 1980, he believed because of the hostage crisis  Reagan presidential campaign fears an “October Surprise” or release of hostages before the election  Credible sources that Reagan’s advisors secretly negotiated the release to occur on his inauguration day.

 Reagan adopted a more aggressive attitude toward the Soviet Union, even referring to it as an ‘Evil Empire.’

 Dramatic increase from $158 billion during the Carter administration to $216 billion per year. This is higher than during the Vietnam War. Bombers Missiles Nuclear weapons in Europe Larger Navy A rapid deployment force

 Rally of 700,000 people in NYC in 1982  Hundreds of thousands of Europeans protest deployment of new US missiles in NATO countries  An Iranian-sponsored terrorist group exploded a car bomb near a Marine barracks in Lebanon killing 241 Americans

 Army Colonel Colin Powell approved decision to withdraw from Lebanon, believing that “America [was]sticking its hand into a thousand-year- old hornet’s nest.”

 Strategic Defense Initiative  So-called “Star Wars”  SDI violated 1972 SALT anti-ballistic missile treaty  Reagan’s ideas on SDI overly optimistic

 Most countries, including the Soviets, could not afford to compete with the money the US invested in weaponry  Non-state organizations or “terrorist groups” responded with guerilla tactics, bombings, and attacks.

 Prop up brutal Salvadoran government against leftists  Dismantle leftist government in Nicaragua by supporting the “contras” or opposition to the Sandinistas

 US Congress repeatedly and clearly instructed the President to stop aid to the Contras in Nicaragua.  The majority of Nicaraguans supported their government

 Supported the Contras through legal and illegal means to dismantle the government in Nicaragua

Senior US officials agreed to facilitate the sale of arms to Iran despite our embargo Why?  To secure release of hostages  To fund contras in Nicaragua

 August 20, TOW anti-tank missiles  September 14, more TOWs  November 24, Hawk anti-aircraft missiles  February 17, TOWs  February 27, TOWs  May 24, TOWs, 240 Hawk spare parts  August 4, More Hawk spares  October 28, TOWs  According to the New York Times

 plan eventually deteriorated into an arms-for- hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch (Reagan White House including VP George H.W. Bush) sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages  Both the sale of weapons to Iran, and the funding of the Contras, attempted to circumvent not only stated administration policy, but also acts of Congress (Boland Amendment)

 Oliver North was convicted, but conviction overturned on a technicality  Independent Prosecutor determined that both President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush knew about the diverted funds  As President, Bush pardoned six other officials in 1992  The head of the Nicaraguan government lost power in part because US involvement ruined that country’s economy.

 Aided Afghan rebels against the Soviet- backed government in Afghanistan  In the African nation of Angola, the US armed rebel forces against the government supported by the Soviets and Cuba  Sided with South African government which was brutally suppressing black protest against apartheid.

 US Congress went against Reagan’s policy in So Africa, imposing sanctions against that government  US Congress would not approve aid for the Nicaraguan “contras”  US Congress approved $4 billion during the 1980s sent to El Salvador’s brutal military

 Reagan Administration invades Grenada  Propped up the brutal government of El Salvador because it was anti-communist  Supported the “contras” in Nicaragua, those opposing the Socialist but elected government

 A new Soviet leader in Mikail Gorbachev who introduced some elements of free enterprise  “glasnost” or greater freedom of expression  Huge expenditures on defense spending were a motivation for arms reductions talks

 Arrives at agreement with Reagan to eliminate all short and medium range missiles from Europe  Announced a gradual withdrawal from Afghanistan