Increasing U.S. military spending

Between 1969 and 1979, the US and USSR reduced mutual tensions through a series of diplomatic efforts known as Détente policies. Both countries signed the Helsinki Accords on security and human rights, concluded Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties, and organized joint space missions. As tensions eased, US military spending decreased from 8.6% to 4.9% of GDP. However, the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and its disregard for human rights commitments led to waning US public support for Détente policies.

In the early 1980s, President Reagan initiated a large increase in U.S. military spending, including a plan for the new missile defense system (SDI), intended to make the US largely invulnerable to Soviet nuclear weapons. With a less productive economy, the USSR was already spending a much larger share of its GDP on its military and could not afford further increases. The Soviet government was thus faced with the choice of abandoning military parity with the US and superpower status or embarking on a radical course of political and economic reforms.