Key Players in Ending the Cold War

Transcription

1 Key Players in Ending the Cold War

2 Pope John Paul II- Background Pope John Paul II was born as Karol Józef Wojtyla in Poland He worked with the Catholic church from the 1940 s all the way into the 21st century When he was elected in 1978, he was the first non-italian pope in 400 years in 1981, he was shot by an assassin, but he recovered from his wounds he is credited with ending communism in Poland Be not afraid -Pope John Paul II

3 Pope John Paul II the Pope was the first to make actions toward shaking the authority of leaders in Poland and other European nations one of his greatest attributes was his ability to speak publicly he was able to sway people s opinion with his charisma, jokes, and gestures

4 Pope John Paul II even before he was Pope, he tried to awaken people s sense of reason and remind them of Poland s history break through to freedom from the underground while acting as a Cardinal, he worked with Polish intellectuals in attempts to begin a resistance to the rising communist party no matter the danger, he preached the gospel and tried to remind people of the false humanism of communism

5 Pope John Paul II when elected Pope, he turned attention to his home country, Poland and began to target serious issues with communism he visited Poland for 9 days during that trip, he induced a spiritual awakening the Poles determined that they as a collective whole created the society this trip sparked the beginning of a slow revolution that would eventually destroy communism throughout eastern Europe

6 Margaret Thatcher even before she was voted into the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1979, she was widely referred to as the Iron Lady she spoke the truth about people, no matter how confrontational the truth may have been Thatcher was more than talk; she had the courage and strength to back her up her key principles included: creating harmony through effort facing aggression with bravery believing that true freedom is the only way to achieve a viable future

7 Margaret Thatcher Thatcher was adamant about the shortcomings of détente she believed that the strength of Russian weapons was enough to warrant involvement Thatcher claimed that a real détente would involve all nations backing their words up with an ability to take action if all else failed

8 Margaret Thatcher three important issues were addressed: evening the playing-field of weapon deployment showing the West in a powerful and defensive light ending perception of the West as a mass of economic downfall and socialist tendencies

9 Lech Walesa first leader of the non-communist Poland before Poland was freed, he conducted gatherings of workers to strike against their companies for ability to form unions and hold strikes he united 10 million workers under the name Solidarity, which the Soviet government recognized in October 1981

10 Lech Walesa after being jailed for nearly a year for his leadership with Solidarity, he began to lead the union program in secret in 1988, a union riot forced the Soviets to be diplomatic with Walesa Solidarity became a legal political party and in June 1989, it won a majority of Parliament seats

11 Lech Walesa in 1990, he won Poland s first election by the people easily he helped convert the economy to a freemarket system he was very strict anti-abortion which deterred many of his votes for a second term he lost, but ran again in 2000 where he received an insignificant amount of votes

12 Deng Xiaoping successor to Mao Zedong who encouraged free enterprise despite Soviet outlawing in September of 1978, Mao died and Deng was put into office both Deng and Mao claimed that they did 70% good and 30% bad which became the party slogan

13 Deng Xiaoping Deng wanted to reverse Mao s attempt at a command economy to do this, he worked from the bottomup, starting in markets in local economic systems Deng was an example of communism working to improve people s quality of life

14 Deng Xiaoping after his death in 1997, China had grown to be one of the biggest economies in the world Gross domestic product quadrupled. Exports expanded by a factor of ten (Gaddis, 215)

15 Mikhail Gorbachev Gorbachev was a lawyer which gave him much experience in public, persuasive speaking he knew that USSR could not go on the way that it had been he was concerned with destroying the current social order, but he had no idea about how to reconstruct it

16 Mikhail Gorbachev Raegan tried his hand at diplomacy with a Soviet leader, but Gorbachev met him reluctantly with mistrust months after their conversation, Gorbachev declared that both the US and the Soviet Union are hoping to rid the world of nuclear weapons by 2000

17 Mikhail Gorbachev Chernobyl was the last event that pushed Gorbachev to finish the nuclear arms race he was greatly concerned that this represented the sickness of the system both Reagan and Gorbachev decided that both nations needed to rid themselves of SDI technology