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The Protest Of The 1980 Moscow Olympics

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Fiona Cullum
United States History
Serrano
Block: 3

I. Introduction
“Our nation does not know us as Olympians. Our sublime moments of exertion and triumph do not exist. We have no memories and you have no memories of us” (DeFranz, qtd. in Caraccioli 17). In 1980, the United States led a 61 nation boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics. President Jimmy Carter called for the boycott to protest the Soviet Union Invasion of Afghanistan. Many people have debated whether the United States should have boycotted the games, which impacted President Jimmy Carter’s diplomatic relations and had serious consequences for athletes around the world. The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics was problematic for both cultural and political reasons. The United States should not have participated in or led the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics because the US government was blending the spheres of athletics and politics, government officials were solely concerned with the international reputation of the US and its relations with other nations, and the athletes preparing to participate in the games to represent the US were treated unfairly.
II. Background
After World War II ended, a new war began: the Cold War. The Cold war was different because there was no fighting with weapons. The principal antagonists in this war were the United States and Soviet Union. There was a great fear of nuclear weapons and a “hot” war, so instead they fought by using words. After decades of somewhat restrained

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