The Ogaden War And Us-Soviet Relationship In Late1970’s

In the mid-late1970s, US-Soviet relations has made some progress under the overall framework of detente. To some extent, tensions between the two countries eased, and important achievements were made in such fields as strategic arms control. In this progress, however, considerable problems accumulated concerning bilateral arms control and interventions of Third-World conflicts. The significant adjustment to the US policy on the USSR introduced by Carter administration shortly after its inauguration, followed by the implementation of "cooperation and competition" strategy, brought new problems to US-Soviet relations. In this context, the Ogaden dispute, legacy of the colonial history of the Horn of Africa, intensified as US and USSR’s influence in the region rise and decline.The out-of-sync in understanding of detente between Carter administration and the Soviet leadership led to confrontations on the Ogaden issue, and resulted in disagreement within the U.S. government. This divergence further developed after the Soviet military intervention, to the extent that it changed the orientation of Carter administration policy towards the Soviet Union. After the Ogaden War, the U.S. began to "linkage" thinking to all actions of the Soviet Union, and linked major bilateral issues to Soviet behavior in the Third World, thus turning the atmosphere of relations between the two countries from cooperation to confrontation.The full text composed by the preface, text and conclusion. The main body is divided into five parts.The first part describes the achievement and problem of US-Soviet relations during the first phase of Detente era. IN this phase, both sides made progress in the strategic arms limitation negotiations and principle of mutual relations, relations have improved; But in the Ford era, although a consensus on strategic arms limitation is honored by both sides, the effort for implement of an protocol failed. Meanwhile, the U.S. domestic opposition to Detente weakened the initiative of the Government on diplomatic relations.In addition, the interference of the local conflicts in the Third World implanted opinion of Soviet’s expansion in US, thus interfere with the progress of US-Soviet relations. The second part analyzes how the Ogaden problems associated and staggered with the US-Soviet relations. Both US and Soviet Union have special interests in the Horn of Africa, the history of conflict between the two countries work together to affect Ethiopia and Somalia and the legacy of the colonial era, so that the situation in the Horn of Africa imbalances, bring risks of US-Soviet relations. Meanwhile, the Carter administration to make adjustments to the Soviet policy of the Soviet Union blocked dialogue, bilateral relations fluctuate. Carter administration for policy changes in the region of the Horn of Africa and the Soviet penetration of the joint action of the efforts to make the Ogaden problem gradually fermentation. The Soviet Union for their own interests exert influence on the situation in trying to solve the crisis, but these initiatives actually had the opposite effect, resulting in the outbreak of war.The third part exames the escalation of US-Soviet Contradiction at ealier stage of war. Due to the policy failure at the escalation stage of war, the US had lost its initiative on interference of the situation in Ogaden. Meanwhile the unsuccessful meditation of Soviet Union leads to a Soviet-Cuba joint military intervention, to which the concern of US was not count into consideration by Soviet leaders. By this stage the Carter Administration had no truthfulness policy object on dealing the crysis, and also short of direct way to interfere the situation in Ogaden,; furthermore, a strong disturbance from the public opinion and hardliners inside the administration severly affected the view point to Soviet action in Ogaden of the Carter Administration. Such disturbance magnified the negative effects of Ogaden war to the US-Soviet relation, generated contradiction which threatening the whole bilateral relations and detente.The fourth part reviewed the deterioration of US-Soviet relation during later stage of war and after the war. The Carter Administration was fall in to a debate on definition of Soviet’s intervention, which leads to a policy choice of establishing linkage between Ogaden issue and US-Soviet relation. This choice damaged the continuity of the policies of Carter Administration. Meanwhile the Soviet Union tried to deny any "linkage" with cover up and stall on situation of Ogaden when US showed concern, but US responded with hardline statement, and the US policy towards Soviet Union turned from allay to conflict.The fifth part shows the legacy of the Ogaden war on US-Soviet relations. the Ogaden war lead to the crush of the positive US-Soviet relation, causing the lost of all the progresses Indian Ocean millitary control,and defers the process of arm strategic limitation negotiation, and all these turnover the US-Soviet code of conduct, made negative affection on the US-Soviet relation after Ogaden war.