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Reagan’s Foreign Policy
The Main Idea
President Reagan took a hard line against communism around the world.
Reading Focus
• How did President Reagan help to bring about the end of the Cold War?
• What foreign trouble spots persisted during Reagan’s presidency?
• How did the Iran-Contra Affair undermine the president?
Bell Ringer
• Can simple words knock down a cement wall?
President Reagan and the Cold War
• In his first term, Reagan rejected the policies of containment and détente; he wanted to destroy communism.
– Position worsened relations with the Soviets
– Forged bonds with like-minded leaders, including Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II
– Critics of his policy called Reagan reckless
• Reagan obtained massive increases in military spending.
– Much of the new spending went to nuclear weapons.
– Promoted the Strategic Defense initiative (SDI)—a shield in space to protect the United States against incoming Soviet missiles.
• Critics called this Star Wars and said it wouldn’t work.
A Thaw in the Cold WarThe Soviet Union
• By the late 1970s the Soviet economy was shrinking.
• Industrial and farm production, population growth, education, and medical care all fell.
• The Soviet Union started importing food
• Strikes in Poland led by Lech Walesa highlighted Soviet weaknesses.
• Walesa successfully forced the Soviet-backed government to legalize independent trade unions.
• He also led a new independent union called Solidarity.
U.S.-Soviet Relations
• A visionary leader came to power in the Soviet Union—Mikhail Gorbachev.
• Believed the only way to save the Soviet Union was to strike a deal with the United States
• Between 1985 and 1988 Reagan and Gorbachev met four times and produced the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
• First treaty to actually reduce nuclear arms
• INF Treaty destroyed a whole class of weapons (more than 2,500 missiles).
What foreign trouble spots persisted during Reagan’s presidency?
• Latin America—the United States supported several anti-Communist governments and rebel groups in the region
• Lebanon—the United States was part of an international peacekeeping force that tried to halt the country’s civil war
• Grenada—Reagan sent 5,000 marines to invade the island in order to stop a violent Communist coup
• South Africa—Congress overrode a Reagan veto and passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act to help end apartheid in the country
Upheaval in Latin America
• Violent civil war between Marxist guerrillas and government troops supported by armed extremist groups
• Reagan administration supported José Napoleón Duarte—a moderate leader who won the 1984 election.
El Salvador
• U.S-backed Anastasio Somoza Debayle was ousted by the Sandinistas—a Marxist group.
• Reagan cut off aid to Nicaragua saying that the Sandinistas were backed by the USSR.
• Reagan then allowed the CIA to equip and train a Sandinista opposition group called the Contras.
• Congress cut off funds to the Contras and banned all further direct or indirect U.S. support of them.
Nicaragua
Lebanon
• Muslim and Christian groups waged a civil war.
• Israel invaded Lebanon to expel the PLO.
• U.S. sent 800 peacekeepers.
• A suicide bomber killed 241 marines.
• Reagan withdrew the troops.
Grenada
• 1983 Communist coup stranded 800 U.S. students.
• Cuba’s role and students’ safety concerned Reagan.
• Reagan sent in soldiers who took the island in two days with a loss of 19 soldiers.
Trouble Spots Abroad
South Africa
• Apartheid enforced legalized racial segregation.
• Reagan’s policy was one of ―constructive engagement‖ with the white minority government.
• Congress overrode his veto and imposed trade limits and other sanctions.
The Iran-Contra Affair
• Despite the Congressional ban on U.S. funds for the Contras war, Reagan’s national security staff sought to continue the funding.
• In 1985 National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane persuaded Reagan to sell arms to Iran in hopes that Iran would help obtain the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon.
– This violated a U.S. arms embargo.
• Members of the National Security Council staff then secretly diverted the money from the sale of arms to Iran to the Contras in Nicaragua.
The Iran-Contra Affair
• Vice Admiral John Poindexter and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North carried out the plan to divert arms sale money to the Contras.
• When the Iran-Contra affair came to light, Congress wanted to know if anyone higher up was involved.
• Reagan admitted authorizing the sale of arms to Iran but denied knowing that the money was then diverted to the Contras.
• Full details of the affair are not known because the administration engaged in a cover-up of their actions.
– North admitted destroying key documents.
– High-level Reagan staff members lied in testimony to Congress and withheld evidence.
– North was convicted of destroying documents and perjury. His conviction was overturned on technicalities.
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