Download or read book The Cold War and the 1984 Olympic Games written by Philip D’Agati and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-06-05 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games is explained as the result of a complex series of events and policies that culminated in a strategic decision to not participate in Los Angeles. Using IR framework, D'Agati developes and argues for the concept of surrogate wars as an alternative means for conflict between states.

Download or read book Los Angeles and the 1984 Olympic Games written by Josh R. Lieser and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1984 Olympics offer an unprecedented opportunity to consider the way that sports were used as cultural and ideological warfare or soft power in the late stages of the Cold War era. Despite the Soviet Union's decision to boycott the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were a claimed "victory" by President Ronald Reagan in the Cultural Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Los Angeles won the right to host the games, and was a politically prudent choice for the United States within the context of the Cultural Cold War. The complicated history of Los Angeles and its constructed post-WWII identity are important elements to the choice of Los Angeles as host city. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games by the Soviet Union is central to the buildup to 1984, but due to the financial success of the Games the Soviet absence was not the crisis that many predicted. This fact was largely due to how the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee utilized corporate sponsorship to make the most financially successful Olympic Games of all time while simultaneously creating a "look" for the Games that would present the United States and the city of Los Angeles in an idealized manner that appeared bereft of hyper-nationalism. The economic success of the Games was the greatest weapon the United States had in the cultural battle it fought in 1984. The cultural legacy of the 1984 Games also hinged on the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival which was organized by the LAOOC. The Olympic Arts Festival, like the Games, was an opportunity for the United States to create international influence and legitimacy while simultaneously claiming the position of diplomatic host nation. Through the exploration of these avenues, the 1984 Los Angeles Games are evidence of the significance of sports in the Cultural Cold War, the corporatization of sports, and the commodification of both sports and the Olympics through modern means of spectacle and profit motives.

Download or read book The Real Cold War written by Josh Lieser and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the nature and meaning of athletic competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War period. Internal politics, foreign policy, and cultural propaganda were directly influenced by these competitions, yet their importance is often overlooked. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. engaged in a wide-ranging cultural Cold War, with athletic competition being an important part. The height of the cultural Cold War saw Olympic boycotts by the United States in 1980 and the Soviet Union in 1984.

Download or read book Before the World was Quiet written by Brad Joseph Congelio and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Upon becoming President of the United States in 1981, Ronald Reagan faced a rapidly deteriorating relationship with the Soviet Union in the midst of the ongoing Cold War, exacerbated by the events of the 1980s, including the 1980 Olympic boycott and President Jimmy Carter's administration. President Reagan's bellicose statements and staunch anti-communism stance further aggravated the situation, reasserting and deepening Cold War anxieties in the Soviet Union. Compared to his predecessors, Reagan was a war hawk determined to bring an absolute end to the Soviet Union and the socialist world. This was no more apparent than in his foreign policy towards the Soviet Union during his first four years in office when he initiated his desire for the strategic defense initiative, his massive American military buildup, and his decision to invade the Caribbean island of Grenada to stave off Soviet influence in the Third World. Each and every action taken by President Reagan was constructed in order to bring the Soviet Union to its knees via political and economic pressure. However, Reagan seemingly had a sudden change of stance when Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Olympic Summer Games. The Kremlin, in turn for Soviet Bloc attendance at the Olympics, requested several demands that had to be met - for example, the right for Soviet Aeroflot flights to land at Los Angeles International Airport and an unprecedented amount of security to protect Soviet athletes and interest. Reagan's decisions concerning the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Summer Games were a glaring anomaly when compared to the previous three years of Reagan's harsh anti-communism and hawkish actions and opinion regarding the Soviet Union. Drawing from declassified documents from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, this research examines how and why the Olympic Movement was able to transcend Cold War politics in regards to President Reagan meeting each and every one of the Soviet demands despite numerous outside pressures and occurrences making it increasingly difficult for him to do so.

Download or read book The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games written by Matthew Llewellyn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games stand as the most profitable and arguably the most important event in the history of the modern Olympic movement. Fresh off the back of the financially disastrous Montreal Games of 1976 and the politically controversial Moscow Games of 1980, the Olympic movement returned to the United States for the sixth time in an attempt to salvage the economic viability and global prestige of the Olympics. The Los Angeles Olympics proved to be both provocative and polarizing. On the one hand they have been heralded as an overwhelming, transformative success, ushering the Olympic movement into the modern commercial age. On the other hand, critics have repudiated the Games as a manifestation of commercial excess and a platform for western political and cultural propaganda. In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Olympics, this volume examines their legacy. With an international collection of contributing scholars, this volume will span a range of global legacies, including the increasing commercialization of the Games, the changing participation of women, the Communist boycott movement, nationalism and sporting identity, and the modernization and California-cation of the Games. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Download or read book Cold War Pawn written by Austin T. Harwell and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Los Angeles and the 1984 Olympic Games written by Josh R. Lieser and published by . This book was released on with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1984 Olympics offer an unprecedented opportunity to consider the way that sports were used as cultural and ideological warfare or soft power in the late stages of the Cold War era. Despite the Soviet Union's decision to boycott the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were a claimed "victory" by President Ronald Reagan in the Cultural Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Los Angeles won the right to host the games, and was a politically prudent choice for the United States within the context of the Cultural Cold War. The complicated history of Los Angeles and its constructed post-WWII identity are important elements to the choice of Los Angeles as host city. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games by the Soviet Union is central to the buildup to 1984, but due to the financial success of the Games the Soviet absence was not the crisis that many predicted. This fact was largely due to how the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee utilized corporate sponsorship to make the most financially successful Olympic Games of all time while simultaneously creating a "look" for the Games that would present the United States and the city of Los Angeles in an idealized manner that appeared bereft of hyper-nationalism. The economic success of the Games was the greatest weapon the United States had in the cultural battle it fought in 1984. The cultural legacy of the 1984 Games also hinged on the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival which was organized by the LAOOC. The Olympic Arts Festival, like the Games, was an opportunity for the United States to create international influence and legitimacy while simultaneously claiming the position of diplomatic host nation. Through the exploration of these avenues, the 1984 Los Angeles Games are evidence of the significance of sports in the Cultural Cold War, the corporatization of sports, and the commodification of both sports and the Olympics through modern means of spectacle and profit motives.

Download or read book The Olympics and the Cold War 1948 1968 written by Erin Elizabeth Redihan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Olympic athletes, fans and the media alike, the games bring out the best sport has to offer--unity, patriotism, friendly competition and the potential for stunning upsets. Yet wherever international competition occurs, politics are never far removed. Early in the Cold War, when all U.S.-Soviet interactions were treated as potential matters of life and death, each side tried to manipulate the International Olympic Committee. Despite the IOC's efforts to keep the games apolitical, they were quickly drawn into the superpowers' global struggle for supremacy, with medal counts the ultimate prize. Based on IOC, U.S. government and contemporary media sources, this book looks at six consecutive Olympiads to show how high the stakes became once the Soviets began competing in 1952, threatening America's athletic supremacy.

Download or read book The Olympic Cold War written by Shane R. Saum and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the role of changing Cold War politics between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. Rising Cold War tensions following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had both nations searching for low-risk political platforms to contest one another without the risk of military retaliation. The hosting of the Summer Olympics of 1980 and 1984 in Moscow and Los Angeles provided that platform. This study argues that the United States used the 1980 Olympic boycott as a symbolic shift away from détente politics and both Olympics were used to display the successes of each nation's economic system. Upon conclusion of the 1984 Olympics the United States had established a more aggressive foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and had hosted an economically successful Olympics when the Soviet Union had not. This study concludes that the 1980 Olympic boycott was successfully used by the United States as a political reprimand to the Soviet Union that its current foreign policy was unacceptable. After the 1980 boycott, the United States utilized the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics to demonstrate how a capitalist society could produce an economically successful Olympics when the Soviet Union had failed to in 1980. The Soviet Union attempted a boycott of its own but it paled in comparison to the 1980, U.S. led boycott. The 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics became less about sport and more about the politics of the time. This study provides an example of how sport and politics need not be separated in historical discourse and can provide insight into larger political themes.

Download or read book The Cold War and the 1984 Olympic Games written by Philip D’Agati and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-06-05 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games is explained as the result of a complex series of events and policies that culminated in a strategic decision to not participate in Los Angeles. Using IR framework, D'Agati developes and argues for the concept of surrogate wars as an alternative means for conflict between states.

Download or read book Cold War Games written by Toby C Rider and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the early Cold War. The Soviet Union appears to be in irresistible ascendance and moves to exploit the Olympic Games as a vehicle for promoting international communism. In response, the United States conceives a subtle, far-reaching psychological warfare campaign to blunt the Soviet advance. Drawing on newly declassified materials and archives, Toby C. Rider chronicles how the U.S. government used the Olympics to promote democracy and its own policy aims during the tense early phase of the Cold War. Rider shows how the government, though constrained by traditions against interference in the Games, eluded detection by cooperating with private groups, including secretly funded émigré organizations bent on liberating their home countries from Soviet control. At the same time, the United States utilized Olympic host cities as launching pads for hyping the American economic and political system. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, the government attempted clandestine manipulation of the International Olympic Committee. Rider also details the campaigns that sent propaganda materials around the globe as the United States mobilized culture in general, and sports in particular, to fight the communist threat. Deeply researched and boldly argued, Cold War Games recovers an essential chapter in Olympic and postwar history.

Download or read book The Olympic Games of 1980 and 1984 as a Cold War site of conflict written by Mareike Westmeyer and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Cultural History of the 1984 Winter Olympics written by Zlatko Jovanovic and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games. It tells the story of the extensive infrastructural transformation of the city and its changing global image in relation to hosting of the Games. Reviewing different cultural representations of Sarajevo in the period from the 1960s to the 1980s, the book explores how the promotion of the city as a future global tourist centre resulted in an increased awareness among its populace of the city’s cultural particularities. The analysis reveals how the process of modernisation relating to hosting of the Olympics provided an opportunity to re-imagine the city as a particularly environmentally progressive city. Placed within the field of studies of late socialism, the book offers important insights into Yugoslav society during the period, including those relating to the country’s unique geopolitical position and its nationalities policies.

Download or read book Cold War Olympics written by Harry Blutstein and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-12-03 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political tension of the Cold War bled into the Olympic Games when each side engaged in psychological warfare, exploiting sport for political ends. In Helsinki, the Soviet Union nearly overtook the United States in the medal count. Caught off guard, the U.S. hastened to respond, certain that the Soviets would use a victory at the next Olympics to broadcast their superiority over the Western world. Following the 1956 suppression of the Hungarian uprising, a Soviet athlete struck a Hungarian opponent in the Melbourne water polo semifinals, turning the pool red. The United States covertly encouraged Eastern Bloc athletes to defect, communist Chinese agents nearly succeeded in goading the Taiwanese government into withdrawing from the games, and a forbidden romance between an American and Czech athlete resulted in a politically complex marriage. This history describes those stories and more that resulted from the complicated relationship between Cold War politics and the Olympics.

Download or read book Cold War Games written by Harry Blutstein and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2017-08 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games have become known as the 'friendly games', but East-West rivalry ensured that they were anything but friendly. From the bloody semi-final water polo match between the USSR and Hungary, to the athletes who defected to the West, sport and politics collided during the Cold War.

Download or read book The Olympic Games the Soviet Sports Bureaucracy and the Cold War written by Jenifer Parks and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2016-12-27 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using previously inaccessible archival documents, this study provides a longitudinal investigation of the middle levels of Soviet bureaucracy responsible for overseeing Olympic Sport during the Cold War. Spanning the period from the USSR’s Olympic debut in 1952 through the 1980 Games held in Moscow, this book argues that behind the high-profile performances of Soviet elite athletes, a legion of sports administrators worked within international sports organizations and the Soviet party-state to increase Soviet chances of success and make Soviet representatives a respected voice in international sports. Soviet officials helped expand the Olympic movement, increasing the participation of women, developing nations, and socialist bloc countries, while achieving Soviet political and diplomatic aims. Soviet representatives, over the course of only a few decades, became a dominant and respected voice within international sports circles, actively promoting Olympic ideals abroad even as they transformed those ideals to better align with Soviet goals. In the process, Soviet sports contributed to the evolution of Olympic sport, integrating the Soviet Union into an emerging global culture, and contributing to transformations within the Soviet Union. Back home in the USSR, the Sports Committee's leading personalities represented a new kind of Soviet bureaucrat, who emerged in the late years of Stalinism and contributed to the professionalization of party-state apparatus. Standing at the intersection between state and society, between Soviet political goals and their execution, and between Olympic sport and Communist ideology, mid-level Soviet sports administrators demonstrated ideological drive, political savvy, and professional pragmatism, providing the impetus, expertise, and experience to transform broad ideological constructs into specific policies and procedures in the Soviet Union and realize Soviet propaganda and foreign policy goals in international and Olympic sports.

Download or read book Defending the American Way of Life written by Kevin B. Witherspoon and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 2018-12-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, 2019 NASSH Book Award, Anthology. The Cold War was fought in every corner of society, including in the sport and entertainment industries. Recognizing the importance of culture in the battle for hearts and minds, the United States, like the Soviet Union, attempted to win the favor of citizens in nonaligned states through the soft power of sport. Athletes became de facto ambassadors of US interests, their wins and losses serving as emblems of broader efforts to shield American culture—both at home and abroad—against communism. In Defending the American Way of Life, leading sport historians present new perspectives on high-profile issues in this era of sport history alongside research drawn from previously untapped archival sources to highlight the ways that sports influenced and were influenced by Cold War politics. Surveying the significance of sports in Cold War America through lenses of race, gender, diplomacy, cultural infiltration, anti-communist hysteria, doping, state intervention, and more, this collection illustrates how this conflict remains relevant to US sporting institutions, organizations, and ideologies today.