Jimmy Carter's Second Term

[jwoodie]

For those who wonder about alternative history, here it is: America in decline, Russia and militant Islam on the rise. Sound familiar? We dodged a bullet the first time, but are now gut shot.

 

[aaronleland]

America has so many bases around the world we can conduct a military strike on any nation in minutes. Our technology is so advanced compared to other nations that the best they can do is hope one of our spy helicopters crashes in their country so they can study it. Islamic militants are being killed by drone strikes by the hundreds. They aren't even fighting us anymore, as much as they are fighting each other. People have been preaching doom and gloom for decades, but the fact is America isn't in decline.

 

[blastoff]

America has so many bases around the world we can conduct a military strike on any nation in minutes. Our technology is so advanced compared to other nations that the best they can do is hope one of our spy helicopters crashes in their country so they can study it. Islamic militants are being killed by drone strikes by the hundreds. They aren't even fighting us anymore, as much as they are fighting each other. People have been preaching doom and gloom for decades, but the fact is America isn't in decline.

Pass that thing around, don't hog it!

 

[Dutch]

For those who wonder about alternative history, here it is: America in decline, Russia and militant Islam on the rise. Sound familiar? We dodged a bullet the first time, but are now gut shot.

The USSR was not on the rise in Carters second term. It's demise was preordained long before Carter took office. This is where the big Conservative myth about how Ronald came in and defeated the Soviets all by himself, when in fact, policies implemented well before his time slowly bled the Soviets dry.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

For those who wonder about alternative history, here it is: America in decline, Russia and militant Islam on the rise. Sound familiar? We dodged a bullet the first time, but are now gut shot.

The USSR was not on the rise in Carters second term. It's demise was preordained long before Carter took office. This is where the big Conservative myth about how Ronald came in and defeated the Soviets all by himself, when in fact, policies implemented well before his time slowly bled the Soviets dry.

Carter didn't serve two terms, you thundering dunderhead.

 

[Dutch]

My fault, got caught up in the OP's title. I know Carter did not serve two terms, dumb mistake.

 

[NYcarbineer]

For those who wonder about alternative history, here it is: America in decline, Russia and militant Islam on the rise. Sound familiar? We dodged a bullet the first time, but are now gut shot.

Carter's second term?

Do you mean Reagan's first term, which gave us:

1. Unemployment rising from 7.5 to 10.8%

2. A 16 month recession

3. A tripling of the deficit

4. Social Security coming to within a year of going bankrupt.

THAT presidency ?

lol

 

[jwoodie]

For those who wonder about alternative history, here it is: America in decline, Russia and militant Islam on the rise. Sound familiar? We dodged a bullet the first time, but are now gut shot.

The USSR was not on the rise in Carters second term. It's demise was preordained long before Carter took office. This is where the big Conservative myth about how Ronald came in and defeated the Soviets all by himself, when in fact, policies implemented well before his time slowly bled the Soviets dry.

The USSR was on the verge of hegemony over Europe at the end of Carter's term due to its placement of intermediate range nuclear missiles in eastern Europe. This was designed to cow the western European countries into financing oil and gas development in the USSR and entering into long term energy contracts which would guarantee a continuing source of foreign currency to prop up that regime.

Against public opinion in both Europe and the U.S., Reagan announced that we would respond by placing IRBM's in West Germany. The Soviets then backed down and removed theirs, and the Europeans canceled their contracts. More than almost any other factor, this deprivation of foreign capital caused the USSR to bankrupt itself while trying to keep up with our military buidup.

 

[BlindBoo]

For those who wonder about alternative history, here it is: America in decline, Russia and militant Islam on the rise. Sound familiar? We dodged a bullet the first time, but are now gut shot.

The USSR was not on the rise in Carters second term. It's demise was preordained long before Carter took office. This is where the big Conservative myth about how Ronald came in and defeated the Soviets all by himself, when in fact, policies implemented well before his time slowly bled the Soviets dry.

The USSR was on the verge of hegemony over Europe at the end of Carter's term due to its placement of intermediate range nuclear missiles in eastern Europe. This was designed to cow the western European countries into financing oil and gas development in the USSR and entering into long term energy contracts which would guarantee a continuing source of foreign currency to prop up that regime.

Against public opinion in both Europe and the U.S., Reagan announced that we would respond by placing IRBM's in West Germany. The Soviets then backed down and removed theirs, and the Europeans canceled their contracts. More than almost any other factor, this deprivation of foreign capital caused the USSR to bankrupt itself while trying to keep up with our military buidup.

That was at the end of Fords tenure. And as you can see it was NATO that confronted the USSR. Started of course under Carter and continued under Reagan.

In the mid-1970s the Soviet Union achieved rough strategic parity with the United States. Shortly thereafter, the Soviet Union began replacing older intermediate-range SS-4 and SS-5 missiles with a new intermediate-range missile, the SS-20, bringing about what was perceived as a qualitative and quantitative change in the European security situation. The SS-20 was mobile, accurate, and capable of being concealed and rapidly redeployed. It carried three independently targetable warheads, as distinguished from the single warheads carried by its predecessors. The SS-20s 5,000 kilometer range permitted it to cover targets in Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and, from bases in the eastern Soviet Union, most of Asia, Southeast Asia, and Alaska.

In late 1977, NATOs Nuclear Planning Group ordered a study of the Alliances long-term INF modernization needs, consistent with the doctrine of flexible response. In the spring of 1979, NATO established the Special Consultative Group to formulate guiding principles for future arms control efforts involving INF. That summer, NATO produced the Integrated Decision Document, which set forth the basic aims of the Alliances INF policy. It called for complementary programs of force modernization and arms control.

On November 12, 1979, the NATO ministers unanimously adopted a "dual track" strategy to counter Soviet SS-20 deployments. One track called for arms control negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union to reduce INF forces to the lowest possible level; the second track called for deployment in Western Europe, beginning in December 1983, of 464 single-warhead U.S. ground-launched cruise (GLCM) missiles and 108 Pershing II ballistic missiles.

Initially the Soviet Union refused to engage in preliminary talks, unless NATO revoked its deployment decision; however, by July 1980, the Soviet position changed, and preliminary discussions began in Geneva in the fall of 1980.

The U.S. approach to the negotiations, developed through extensive consultations within NATO, required that any INF agreement must: (1) provide for equality both in limits and rights between the United States and the Soviet Union; (2) be strictly bilateral and thus exclude British and French systems; (3) limit systems on a global basis; (4) not adversely affect NATOs conventional defense capability; and (5) be effectively verifiable.

Agreement to begin formal talks was reached on September 23, 1981. On November 18, President Reagan announced a negotiating proposal in which the United States would agree to eliminate its Pershing IIs and GLCMs if the Soviet Union would dismantle all of its SS-20s, SS-4s, and SS-5s. This proposal became known as the "zero-zero offer."

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces [INF]