16 The End of the Cold War Key terms Iran Iraq War Glasnost Perestroika and Gorbachev Berlin Wall Bosnia Rwanda I America s 1980s Global Politics 1 Nicaragua and the Sandinistas Nicaragua one of many countries that dabbled in communism and US finds itself interested there Wherever communism is a threat we will be there in 1980s we saw the communist Sandinistas as a threat These communist won democratic election to run the government Still ppl in Nicaragua who don t want communism their name contras What the contras want to do is retake government and take Sandinistas out Do this by force and violence They go to war with each other in Nicaragua theoretically a civil war The United States gives money and weapons guns minds to the contras The Sandinistas also need help in their fight if the US is funding contras the communists wants soviets on their side US is closer to Nicaragua but Soviet Union has a buddy Cuba to help them Transport guns by chips Contras getting s minds from US contras putting those mins in the harbors so when Cuba comes to deliver the stuff to communists they blow up One of the good guy ships British ships gets blown up Publicity wise doing very bad in the cold war There s outrage in US and international community Congress decides to take action no more guns US will not send any more weapons to the contras Absolutely no more weapons roughly around 1982 1983 2 Iran Iraq War Play part in story of Nicaragua key to all of this is containing communism Choices we make in doing so have longtime ripple effects Iran after WWII had a democratic elected government In early 1940s government elected looked communism American and British companies and corporations owned oil fields in Iran When American and British companies take out this oil they are the ones who see the money Iran people are not seeing money This new democratically elected government decided to take these things back Not going to allow foreign ownership anymore take these oil fields nationalization and give it back to people of Iran US sees a problem they are heading towards communism I 1953 the CIA goes into Iran and basically gets rid of democratically elected government installs a king instead There was a democracy elections leading to early communists democratic elected officials and now a king The Shaw king comes in and the British and American people get money back in order to protect these American investments we pay him hundreds of millions of dollars As king gets richer the people get poorer and poorer The Shaw is ready to do dirty things arrest and torcher people who complain about what is going on This is going to lead to set of conditions where the people are not happy they are looking for way to fight back communism is one potential option to do so Democratic capitalism and communism are NOT only way to be People of Iran unite and rally for different way to run country Islam provides source of hope motivation this becomes foundation or Iranian Revolution taking place in 1979 They want the Shaw gone and instead of democracy or communism they want government to be based on the rules and laws of Islam theocracy The rules and laws of Iran and country will now be the rules and laws of Islam The have a chance to get this because the Shaw leaves the country because he has terminal cancer In 1979 he goes to the United States The Shaw comes to US and while he is gone this revolution occurs lead a lot by college aged kids who grew up in this awful poverty fighting for faith and national Establish an Islamic nation The US was not a big problem of theirs until this new government of Iran made a couple of requests When the Shaw comes to US he also brings access to the money so people of Iran want the access to the money and the Shaw to execute him and make big show of punishing him The US says no to these requests after this the Embassy is taken hostage about 100 Americans were held hostage for over a year by government of Iran This played out on American tvs night after night The United States is obviously not happy What s interesting is Iran isn t communism or democratic so ultimately they aren t our main target These hostages are released Iraq their neighbor saw an opportunity If you are Iraq you have oil but it would be better to have more oil In 1981 Iraq invades Iran in order to take it over This kicks off a 7 year war This will kill one million people United States takes Iraq s side because their government isn t based on Islam aren t communism they are democratic capitalism Saddam Hussain is the leader of Iraq During this war money supplies money and weapons to Saddam Hussain The kinds of weapons we sell are guns mins jet planes along with chemical weapons and he uses them on own citizens Hundreds of thousands curds killed because of weapons US is giving 3 Iran Contra Affair In about 1985 amid level paper pusher in the pentagon Oliver North He recognizes this Iran Iraq stuff is not our number one priority Nicaragua needs money but we cannot easily hand out cash Iran does have money from access to oil but they are in the middle of a war To fight this war they need weapons Technically speaking nobody said we couldn t sell weapons to Iran He calls up Iran offers for the US to sell weapons to Iran take their cash and give it to the contras Sell mostly old jet planes Give this money to contras so they can buy weapons to fight the communists This comes out from the paper work his secretary testifies His problem is she was in charge of the shredder she feeds the documents into the shredder and FBI catches her in the act Meanwhile US contributes to deal of millions of people The weapons that Iraq has and once this is over Iraq keeps these weapons and uses them to fight US in 1991 2003 same thing happens These are the unintended consequences when you make choices that communism is your number one goal This is what the cold war does freaks you out about communism and it is hard to see consequences of your actions 4 Afghanistan the Soviet Union found itself entangled in Afghanistan in 1980s Soviet Union had moderate influence on government in Afghanistan They had a government that has some communists not all Weren t too worried about it because Soviets had just enough say to influence region 1989 roles in and things change The majority faith in Afghanistan is Islam next door they know what s going on They think and Islamic government sounds good Soviet Union is a bit worried and decides to do something In