Analysis of the Cold War - Research Paper Example

The reformist aspirations of the new Soviet leaders, Mikhail Gorbachev and his inner circle coincided with the desire of the U.S. to get rid of the Cold War strategic impasse. During the first meeting between Gorbachev and Reagan on 19 November 1985 an informal agreement was made between the two leaders concerning the further meetings and confidence-building measures. The second U.S.-Soviet summit in Reykjavik (11-12 October 1987) paved the way for the conclusion of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was adopted by both parties on 8 December 1987, eliminating the threat of nuclear war in Europe.

What were some of the global repercussions of it? The concessions made by the USSR during the talks with the U.S. and the domestic reforms of Gorbachev created the ground for the unravelling of the Soviet-controlled regional system in Eastern Europe. The pro-Soviet governments in the Third World in their majority followed the suit, and by the time the USSR itself dissolved in December 1991, the Eastern Bloc as a geopolitical unity no longer existed. Assess positive and negative implications of using Son of the Revolution as the primary source for the twentieth-century history of China In Son of the Revolution Liang Heng presents a story of his disillusionment in Maoism, combining it with the account of the most important events of that period of Chinese history as seen through the eyes of the ordinary Chinese.

Liang Heng was actually a son of minor officials of the Chinese province of Hunan, with his father a deputy editor of Hunan Daily News, and his mother a clerk in the local Public Security Bureau. According to him, his parents dreamt of “the day when they would be deemed pure and devoted enough to be accepted in the Party” but their devotion to the Chinese Communist Party did not save them from repressions. Liang’s mother was purged to the countryside as a result of the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957, and his father was condemned as pro-Taiwan ‘rightist’ during the Cultural Revolution.

Liang retells his own experience as a young Red Guard naively believing in the omniscience of Mao Zedong Thought, a peasant sent to the remote work team and as a factory worker and student in the times of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. He recalls that at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution he “thought it was a great idea… I suppose I too resented the teachers who had controlled and criticized me for so long, and I looked forward to a little revenge”. Nevertheless, later he became dismayed with the actual results of the Cultural Revolution.

Liang’s account is an important primary source for the research of the history of China in the twentieth century. Still, it is instructive not to forget the use of diverse primary and secondary sources is necessary to properly complement it. Besides, the personal character of his evidence is both positive and negative factor, as there is some danger of possible subjective bias in his story.