Cold War (1968-1980)(A 20th Century Future)

During this time the Cold War started to change its focus from a mostly Arms Race to one that focused on space exploration and overall technological competition. After the successful landing on the moon by the United States and the Soviet Union's first launch of a space station, Mars/Venus landers and circumlunar spaceflight. The United States had started to intensify their own space efforts years earlier with the Apollo Program but it was not until 1969 that there was a major budgetary change (equivelant to doubling the budget of NASA). The Johnson and Humphrey Administration out of fear of a all-out Soviet space effort would leave the United States behind, started to call on congress to increase America's space budget.

Foreign Policy
The Soviet Union under the Brezhnev had just years earlier saw the Brezhnev Doctrine outlined as a foreign policy and it stated: When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries. The policy was used to justified the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and to put down the Hungarian uprisings in 1956. However, the decision to engage the United States in an attempt to become a space power required a re-evaluation of this policy by Kosygin Kosygin gambled that by refocusing the Cold War from an expensive Arms Race that had little promise for the future but war with the United States; it would allow the Soviet Economy to recover and surpass that of the United States. This was known as the Kosygin Doctrine that lasted for over 10 years.

By reducing arms spending Kosgin made many new enemies that had strong interests in the military. However, he made even more new allies who believed it was time to slow down the building of nuclear warheads now that the Soviet had roughly parody with the Americans. It was these individuals that knew the toll that the Arms Race was having on the economy and the environment, but until now could not or would not speak up out of fear of reprisal. One of the loudest new voices was a young Yuri Andropov who was at the time the leader of the KGB. Lyndon B. Johnson began a policy of rapid disengagement from the war after the October 1968 Paris Peace Accords. The U.S. pulled out the last of its troops out of Vietnam in January 1969 and the Paris Peace Accords held until the North invaded the South eight months later and reunified the country under Communism.

President Johnson initiated a policy of Detente with President Lyndon B. Johnson. It quickly leads to the SALT I Treaty to reduce nuclear warheads.

The USSR starts to scrap some of its ICBM's for parts in support of it various space operations. While in many ways this was seen as an admission to a growing weakness within the Soviet economy. The Soviets play it as an opportunity to strengthen their hand in world affairs as the less aggressive of the superpowers.

Reforms are made in the Czechoslovakia Communist government as Alexander Dubček returns to his post as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Poland and soon every other Eastern Bloc country end their authoritarian governments begins an era of reforms known as the Autumn of Nations (1968-1971). While Single Party rule is maintained multi-candidate elections are allowed with increasing liberalizations of Speech, Assembly and the Press.

Economics
The New Economic Mechanism (NEM), a major economic reform, is launched in the People's Republic of Hungary while the Ninth Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union (1971-1975) brought about similer reforms. Overall the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc liberalized it's economy along Democratic Socialist lines.

Meanwhile Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert Humphrey extended the New Deal and Great Society economic/political policies. The Nixon Scandal ended the Republican Party's credibility for years to come resulting in Newleft influences on politics. The Oil crisis of 1973 and 1979 had numerous influences including the rapid expantion of Nuclear Energy.

Agriculture
Stavropol Kraikom and was one of the youngest provincial party leaders in the Soviet Union. He was using the position to helped re-organise the collective farms, improve workers' living conditions, expand the size of their private gardening plots, and gave them a greater voice in local planning. He was also aware of the damage to the environment the arms race was having. This first hand knowledge and bravery gave Gorbachev an advantage over many others and got him noticed by Kosygin. Who brought him to Moscow in the hope of using Gorbachev to continue to stress the need to change.

Science and Technology
The Space Race continued at a high pace especially given the Soviet's victory in launching piloted Soyuz 7K-L1 Circumlunar missions (1968) and Salyut Space Stations (1971) before the United States.

Kosygin consolidated rocket and the space sciences under one planning chief and primary rocket design was taken out of the hands of the military ans into the hands of a civilian Soviet Space Agency (SSA). The Soviets quickly put together an international plan that would start to train non-Russian cosmonauts and in later years citizens of countries that are sympathetic toward socialism. This became Interkosmos. Space Stations (1971), Lunar Missions (1974), Unmanned Mars/Venus Landings and Orbiters (1970 & 1971). Construction of the nine-person Zvezda Space Station occured between 1975-1980 as the United States exanede it's own Lunar Surface and Orbital Bases. Increasingly, technological and economic competition between superpowers was replacing the Arms Race. Both the United States and Soviet Union both developed Supersonic Airliners, the Boeing 2707 and Tupolov-144, introducing them to passenger service in 1974.