US-RUSSIA RELATIONS

MOI UNIVERSITY

US-RUSSIA RELATIONS

Ong'anya

3/16/2010

 

 

 

US-Russia Relations

The US-Russia relations informed the age of nuclear arms race during the Cold War, an era of mutual suspicion of the intentions of the opposite number since the end of the World War II. There was a massive proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with the purpose of deterring the enemy.Ideological differences were well demarcated with the United States espousing democracy and capitalism in a free world of ideas and movement while the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics championing Communism and state control aspects of life: totalitarianism.

Alliance formations came up soon after the Allied victory in the World War II against Germany, Italy and Japan. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was established in 1949 to take care of capitalist expansion. The aim was to contain the spread of communism around the world, an ideology that John F. Kennedy termed an international conspiracy against freedom of humanity. The mutual security agreement endeavoured tocontain the spread of communist ideology as marketed by the Soviet Union. The WarsawTreaty Organisation was formed as a reaction of NATO to help in expanding Communist ideals, and to free the workers of the world form Capitalist chains and western aggression.

The Cold War thus set in full gear with the patrons (US and USSR) fuelling conflicts within client states of the Third World. Effects were felt in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Opposing sides facilitated militant operations of factions and individuals of ideology sympathizers. In Angola, for instance, there were FRELIMO and RENAMO factions. In Zaire, the conflict led to a near grounding of the United Nations as the conflict between Lumumba and Kasavubu caused an open conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the Soviet Union accusing the United Nations of being pro-capitalist. Eventually the Zaire conflict led to the shooting down of the plane carrying the Secretary General of the United Nations, DaagHammarskjöld.

Successive regimes in both the USSR and US concentrated on increased insecurity measures resulting in a more expensive venture of arms race. Offensive structural realism informed the arms race.

The status of mutual suspicion was sustained untilMarch 1985 with the enthronement of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet President. Gorbachev was a moderate who got concerned with the economic advancement and structural reforms rather than excessive militarization. He thus came up with policies of perestroika and glasnost, for restructuring of the economic system and openness. He thus introduced democracy in the Soviet Union, opening the Soviet system to both criticism and appraisal. Gorbachev had already declared his favour for détente. At the time Gorbachev was taking office at the Kremlin, Ronald Reagan had been re-elected to the White House. Reagan's second term in office was more accommodating to the Soviets. He had softened his hardliner rhetoric in his campaigns by promising more diplomacy in approaching foreign policy issues.Reagan had an entrenched negative view of the Soviet Union, that he never attended funerals of three Soviet leaders who died during his presidency. He once joked that he had signed a legislation outlawing Russia forever, and that bombing would start in five minutes.

With the election of George H .W. Bush in 1988 as US President the tide changed in the world order. As an astute diplomat and moderate Republican, Bush negotiated, giving in to much compromise in an effort to end the Cold War. As an experienced statesman having served in a chain of related offices, Bush convinced the Gorbachev regime to cut military and defence expenditure.

The fall of the Berlin Wall which was hitherto a symbol of ideological divide in 1989, symbolised the end of the Cold War. Further, the split of the Soviet Union, resulting in the Commonwealth of independent states marked the end of Communism, and the victory of capitalism as had been predicted by Ronald Reagan that the United States would transcend communism, not just containing it. The United States remains the sole superpower in a unipolar world order.

The USSR split with satellite republics breaking down into independence. The events related to the Cold War and to major world earned the United States the description of the "owner" of the 20^th century. It all started with the victory of the Allied forces in the World War I, World War II and then the Cold War.

The US administration under G.H.W Bush offered aid to the former Soviet Republics which had spent most resources in militarization, including the exploration of the moon, in an attempt to prove its technological capabilities.

In her address at US- Russia Relations at the German Marshall fund on September 18 2008, US Secretary of State DrCondoleezza Rice described Russia as increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad, following the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The US accused Russia of bullying her neighbours by launching full-scale invasion against Georgia.

Dr Rice warned that Russia was making unfortunate choices. Russia's choices, according to the US, will be shaped by the actions of the United States, US friends and allies through incentives and pressure.Russia was accused by the United States of bullying her neighbour thus flouting international instruments of engagement. Efforts by both the United States and the European Union Presidency under French President Nicolas Sarkozy failed to stop Russians aggressive character, reminiscent of the Cold War era where she fought proxy wars with the United States in third countries.

The US-Russia relations may also be considered from the age of the Cold War, during the Cuban missile crisis. The crisis almost led to a shooting war between the USA and the Soviet Union as a militant approach was conveyed in J.F. Kennedy's Cuban missile broadcast on October 22 1962. The young American President declared his country resort to full defensive strategy against Soviet (and communist) invasion of the Western Hemisphere. He accused the Soviet Union under the leadership of Chairman Nikita Khrushchev of using Cuba as a pawn, a situation that does not serve Cuban interest.

In a heavy laden speech, President Kennedy declared

we will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of world-wide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth-but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.

The world was at the brink of a hot nuclear confrontation that would, as Kennedy argued, win the victors ashes in their mouth. Broadcast was a terse one, referring to the Soviet Union. It necessitated an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to try and bring the two principles on a negotiating table. Any attack against any Western Hemisphere nation from Cuba according to the United States, was an attack on the United States by the Soviets and would attract a full retaliatory response upon the USSR.

During the Cold War, the arms race costed the world a whooping amount of money. It was of the opinion of Secretary Henry Kissinger to implement the détente policy. The principle antagonism spent almost three times the cumulative amount spent by all world's governments on health, on military and armament.

Mutual mistrust was the guidingprinciple as each side sought to increase its relative power, seeking offensive hegemony. Other nations were drawn in as allies to these major powers, either on the liberal Capitalist west or Communist east.

At the time, arms control proved viable than disarmament. The later called for the scraping of existing military hardware, while the former encouraged non proliferation and preventing an eventuality of arms build-up thus, the former involved psychological efforts at reducing tensions between the antagonistic sides. This led to the signing in 1963 of the partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

During the SALTnegotiations in 1969, it was clear that nuclear superiority was not to be an issue. Kissinger held the belief that "sufficiency" sufficed and effectively convinced his president against superiority posturing. In the ensuing situation, Kissinger believed that the safety of weapons would increase the safety of the people and so there was need of assurances that no side would aim to attack the military capability of the antagonist. The SALT negotiations were founded on this basic principle.

The détente policy worked on by Kissinger gained roots, as it was acknowledged by bothsuperpowers. In 1973, East and West Germany gained entry to the UN, and Nixon and Brezhnev kept close contacts. Henry Kissinger was anastute diplomat who worked on flexible programmes without compromising US interest in terms of global security. With the advent of Jimmy Carter, Kissinger was replaced as Secretary of State by CyrusVance. Carter attacked the USSR of non-observance to human rights, and based anynegotiations on SALT II to respect for human rights(Stoessinger). This was not received positively by the Soviets, who accused the US of selective morality. The Soviets argued that the US ignored violations in dictatorships such as Chile, Iran and South Korea, because these were to the service of the US interest.

During the Cold War era, trade between the superpowers went on. The Soviet Union imported grains from the US. Trade is a vital link to friendly interactions, though not the surest way of binding sustainable friendship. Kissinger embarked onstrengthening trade links, as he did on other sectors of cooperation to maintain détente. An agreement was reached in 1972 allowing the Soviet Union to purchase $0.75 billion of American grain. The OxidentalPetroleumCompany concluded a $3 billion deal for exploitation of natural gas from Siberia. Another, major agreement was the settlement of the outstanding World War IIlend-lease debt owed to the US, to be cleared over a period of 29 years. The Soviet Union received a most favoured nation status in trade relations with the US, a status which had been suspended since 1951. Kissinger's plan did not work well, however, as he met stiff Senate opposition led by Senator Henry M.Jackson, who doubted the benefits of détente to the United States. Jackson insisted on the Soviet Union to allow free emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union. The conflict progressed between Kissinger and Jackson, and was exacerbated by the October 1973 Middle East War. Soviets were accused of enjoying the benefits of détente while not owning up to the obligations, and as such, détente was a lopsidedly executed policy. More criticism from the US indicated the support policy given to the Arabs (Egypt and Syria) during war against the Jews.

October 1976 was the agreed date when the SU could procure up to 8 million metric tones of grains from the US. This was however a trade bargain that Kissinger used to get cheaper oil from the SU. This served the US national interest in relations to Arab oil and the oil cartel.

The coming to power of JimmyCarter had far reaching effect on the détente policy. The US imposed a grain embargo against the SU, as a reaction to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan;Soviet fishing rights in American waters was withdrawn as all high technology exports to the US were suspended. The 1980 Olympics games in Moscow were boycotted by the US and some of her allies. Sino-America relations were strengthened to water down Soviet expansionism.

Relations strained in 1970 when the Soviet Union supported the Syrian offensive against Jordan and Lebanon with military hardware and software. This shook Kissinger, who promised support for Israel against any aggression. The Syrian invasion was viewed in terms of control of the Middle East by Russia, including Saudi Arabia's oil wealth. This would destabilize the international balance of power to Soviet's advantage. The US prevailed on Israel to fight against Syria in Jordan promising to intervene in case Egypt and the Soviet Union would physically join the battle front.

The United States and the Soviet Unionfoughtcontinuous proxy wars in different regions.In the Indian sub-continent, Russia supported Indira Gandhi's forces againstYahyaKhan of Pakistan. Khan was then involved in a civil war with the Bengalis of East Pakistan, separated from West Pakistan by a thousand miles of hostile Indian territory. PresidentKhan had nullified election results that could have earned the presidency to East Pakistan- Bengali. A reprisal caused 10 million refugees fleeing to India, pausing a challenge to Gandhi's government. India chose to dismember Pakistan by giving an ultimatum on December 1 1972 for Pakistan to withdraw her forces from East Pakistan. India had weighed the cost of feeding the 10 million refugees and found it astronomical. President Khan ordered air-strikes against India. Gandhi's reaction was to send Indian army to Dacca, the capital of East Pakistan.

Keen to maintain the balance in the sub-continent the US intervened on the side of Pakistan, since India and the Soviet Union were on one side of the conflict. This followed the August 1971 friendship treaty signed between India and the Soviet Union. The war ended December 16 with the split between West and East Pakistan.

Another proxy war was fought by the two superpowers in 1973 between the Israelis and the Arabs. After Israel had entrapped100,000 Egyptian soldiers, the Soviet Union warned of a unilateral action to stop the imminent Arab defeat. The US responded by alerting its military on any eventuality even as Kissinger embarked on diplomacy. Thus "gun-boat" diplomacy was Kissinger's practice.

Elected in 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan had a negative attitude against the Soviet Union. He variously referred to the SU as ruled by men who commit crime, lie and cheat at their discretion; an evil force; a focus of evil.In fact, the American President did not attend Leonid Brezhnev's funeral in 1982, neither did he attend those of his successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. His take on containment was different from his predecessors. He believed that the US would not contain, but rather transcend communism. It was his wish to wipe the Soviet Union out of the world map. John Stoessinger says, Reagan's perception on communism was "us against them"reminiscent of George W. Bush Junior's war on terror statement of "you are either with us or against us" referring to his crusade against terrorism after the September 11 2001 attacks upon the     World Trade Centre.

The shooting down of a Korean airline by the Soviets leaving 239 civilian passengers dead caused among the worst relations between the superpowers. The Soviet Union was described as an international outlaw as the Soviets, under Yuri Andropov, compared Reagan to Hitler. The exchanges continued till the death of Andropov in February 1984. InMay 1984, however Reagan lowered his militancy by appealing to the Soviet Union to reduce tension build-up.

The SU boycotted the 1984 American Olympics in Los Angeles, a sign of strained relations. The same year, there were literally no negotiations, on anything, as each side kept to itself. Breaking the ice was a herculean task for both sides, as none had the courage to approach the adversary as it happened during John F. Kennedy's time.

The Soviet-American relations sobered after Reagan's landslide presidential victory of 1984, when "Reagan II" extended an olive branch to the Communist bloc and the Soviet Union in particular. Apparently, Reagan intended to leave a legacy of peace. He instructed his Secretary of State George Shultz to meet his Soviet counterpart Andrei Gromyko. The meeting was arranged in Geneva to negotiate peace and defence.

Relations improved even further with the elevation of 54-year old Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader in 1985 and as Stoessinger puts it "the first Soviet leader younger than the Soviet state itself". Five summits were held, leading to a signing of an arms reduction treaty, the first one in history. Diplomatic manoeuvres also led to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and greatly improved Soviet-American relations. Gorbachev engaged in glasnost and perestroika interpreted as the sure way of improving the living standards of the hungry Soviets, and ending the non-beneficial Cold War and arms race. The first meeting between Gorbachev and Reagan was on November 211985 in Geneva. The meeting was cordial, and it laid the foundations for the end of the ideological divide and the Cold War.

Reagan visited Russia in May 1988, with emphasis on respect for human rights. The perestroika and glasnost had taken root in most Soviet territories and spheres of domination, except in East Germany where the regime feared for the entrenched Communist stability. The US emphasized on press freedom, freedom of speech and expression, religious rights and emigration. The emigration issue concerned mainly Jewish Russians who wished to emigrate from the Soviet Union fearing xenophobic attacks.

A 1988 speech at the United Nations by Mikhail Gorbachev was a dramatic change of tone from the Kremlin. Gorbachev spoke against armament, fully supporting the freedom of expression and of choice. He emphasized the need for democratization and openness of the political system. The effects of his speech were instant in the US. Americans perceived Gorbachev as a reformist and icon of peace, contrary to his predecessor who were perceived as cardboard figures, saluting from the Kremlin wall.

The April 1989 election of Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union was a milestone in Soviet democracy, the last elections having been conducted in 1917.The 2,250-member Congress'election of Gorbachev was a test of the Soviet leader's popularity and his glasnost and perestroika programmes. It sounded the ending of Communism and the adoption of democracy.

The US won SU's cooperation in James Bakers' shrewdness to democratically unseat the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in February 1990. Baker had prevailed upon the Soviet Union to cut their military assistance to Nicaragua and to prevail upon the Sandinista to accept electoral results. The product was a victory of a coalition, led by newspaper publisher, Violeta Chamorro.

The election of Boris Yeltsin in 1990 as the head of the Russian Federation created a complication for George Bush, who was a personal friend and ally of Gorbachev. An alcoholic Yeltsin was popularly elected and was a radical reformer, placated by Gorbachev in 1987 for his quest for rapid reforms. His 1990 election propelled him to prominence, and would later lead him to the apex of Soviet power.

The 1991 Persian Gulf War was a symbol of Russo-American relations. The USSR joined the US by supporting the US mission in the mid East. Saddam disputed the Kuwait-Iraq boundary drawn by the British imperialism in 1922 because it cut him from the sea. Kuwait also pumped voluminous oil, thus causing price reductions. The other reason was that, Saddam sought dominance in the Middle East, faultily assuming that the US would intervene, being owed by Iraq $40 billion in exchange of arms in the war with Iran in the 1980s.

Strategic and tactical decisions had to be made, as Kuwait hated Israel with a passion, and was eastern oriented, even though the Cold War had ended. The national interest of Britain made her to prevail upon the US to engage in the war. Britainwas a major trading partner of Kuwait. Bush declared his mission of liberation and the need for a new world order guided by the rule of law. This was the first time that the USSR were partner in MiddleEast peace process.

In the attempted coup against Gorbachev in August 1991, the US came up in support of the embattled Soviet leader. Bush's national security advisor General Brent Scowcroft declared"we should not burn our bridges" to mean the US could not side with the right wingers to overthrow Gorbachev. Luckily, Boris Yeltsin, leader of the Russian Federation joined in support of Gorbachev to defeat the conservatives. Gorbachev later disbanded the Communist Central Committee to curb the strength of the conservatives.

On August 1 1991, a day after a treaty that would transform nine of the 15 Soviet republics into sovereign states was to be signed,President Bush prevailed on the Ukrainian legislature not to declare its sovereignty from the Soviet Union.

American investors captured the opportunity in Russia after the failed coup. General Motors, Pepsico, Chevron and Colgate established their industries in the then world's largest oil producer at a daily rate of 11.5 million barrels.

In 1992, Bush declared the victory of the USA in the long Cold War. The UShad won and remained the sole superpower. Despite this chest-thumping, she could not rescue her falling friend Gorbachev, leading to his resignation on the Christmas day of 1991. Neither could she force the "Hitler" of Iraq out of power in the Operation Desert Storm(LaFeber 341).

The Cold War spelt the end of some common understanding within the United States. Americans were united in their quest to contain the Communist expansion and now that Communism has bowed, there had to be a paradigm shift in looking for a new world order. The Republicans disagreed over foreign policy engagement in the run-up to the 1992 elections, causing a blow to George Bush. A 46 year old Democratic candidate and Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton won the presidential election, riding on Bush's economic mishaps. Americans sought to advance their interest large and wide, in the new concept of "enlargement" a successful replacement of "contaminated" The first test of "enlargement" was in Somalia, an engagement that tainted, but shaped Clinton's later engagement in foreign countries. The Somali case was the first where the international community intervened without invitation or agreement by any local authorities.

During the Cold War, Somali had accumulated weapons much enough to fuel civil war for 100 years. The country was a Cold War hotspot, owing to its strategic location as a sea route to the Middle East. The US used Kenya to access the sea at the port of Mombasa, and to keep vigil over communist activities within the region.

The Somali debacle influenced America's involvement outside. The civil wars in Liberia and Rwanda went on without America's interventions. The latter left a startling black spot in the continent as almost a million people died in the ethnic conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis in 1994.

Milton Leitenberg concluded that the end of the Cold War set America free to pursue its interest in African, without communist interference. To her surprise however, she discovered she did not have any interest in the continent.

The Bosnian crisis of 1995 once again brought in the Russians on the side of the US. The Yugoslav civil war, as pundits put it, was the US's Third Empire, after dominance in the 1898 war and the World War II. This was however done against Russian public opinion. Demonstrations were held against Yeltsin's decision, and the military lost morale. The Orthodox ChristianRussians were not ready to work under the US in protecting the Serbs.

 

Bibliography

LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1996. Mc Graw-Hill, 1997.

Parmet, Herbert S., ed. "Kennedy's Cuban Missile Broadcast." Microsoft Encarta 2009. 2009.     [DVD]. Microsoft Corporation. 2008.

Stoessinger, John G. Nations in Darkness: China, Russia and America. 5th. New York: Mc     Graw-Hill, 1990.

US State Department. "Secretary Rice Addresses US-Russia Relations at the German Marshall     Fund." 18 September 2008. US Department of State. 1 December 2009     <http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/09/109954.htm>.