Austin Ferguson
April 16th, 2015
Mr. Smith
APUSH
Research Paper on the Presidents in the 80’s and 90’s Ronald Reagan:
Foreign Policy President Reagan’s foreign policy took a sharp turn from his predecessors’ tactics of easing tensions and instead chose to escalate the cold war conflict, arguing the moral superiority of the U.S.’s governmental system and framing the Cold War as a fight between the good and free capitalist United States versus the evil communist regime. (“Reagan Doctrine" at U.S. Department of State) This direct confrontal approach later became known as the “Reagan Doctrine”. In his pursuit of the USSR he implemented a new policy through the National Security Decisions Directive to diminish the resources of the Soviet
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In a political snafu the Reagan administration sold arms to Iran so that they could secure the release of US hostages and also generate enough money to support Contra. This became known as the Iran-Contra Affair and steeply affected Reagan’s popularity with the people. (Mayer, Jane and Doyle McManus) Reagan’s willingness to use violence alarmed many, especially when he took up the position of the Soviet Union being purely evil. After Gorbachev became a chairman representing many soviet political parties and took on a position of negotiator, Reagan became less militant and more open to discussion, seeing Gorbachev as a good man who came out of an evil system. A significant event during this period was Reagan’s speech at the berlin wall, which urged Gorbachev to bring down the wall and reunite berlin. As tensions rapidly declined the Soviets declared that they would no longer interfere in allied affairs.
Domestic Policies Reagan’s domestic policies focused on conservative economic values, specifically his implementation of supply side economics and large tax cuts, which thereafter were dubbed “Reaganomics” Which lowered tax rates, reduced regulation, limited new currency, reduced the growth of government spending. When he entered the presidency Reagan faced an extremely high rate of inflation and high interest rates which he sought to limit by making large tax cuts and curbing social spending. This produced major results, expanding the economy and
Reaganomics was economics policies which were propelled by United States President, Ronald Reagan during 1980s. These policies were based on fours pillars namely; reduction of the growth of government spending, reduction of income and capital gains marginal tax rates, reduction of government regulation of economy, and controlling of the money in supply so as to reduce inflation. Their basic aims were to lower taxes and create a leaner government. According to Reagan his decision was informed on stimulation of the economy taxes, financed by borrowing. Lowering taxes was aimed at reviving the economy, which in turn would see the increased tax revenues being used to offset the debts incurred (Niskanen
Ronald Reagan, President of the United States from 1981 through 1989, created economic policies throughout his presidency that aimed to pull the United States out of a recession. His policies, called Reaganomics, reduced government spending and reduced tax rates in order to foster economic growth. Reagan also appointed many conservative judges to the Supreme Court and federal courts in order to shift ideologies to the right. Because of this, Reagan was both underrated and overrated as a president.
Reagan really focused on improving the economy during his presidency, with a plan he called Reaganomics, or supply side economics. The main parts of this plan were cuts on taxes and budgets, and monetary policy. Also, he wanted to reduce government regulation on businesses. He thought that these and increasing defense expenditures would heighten economic efficiency. Reagan managed to cut taxes by twenty five percent in three years. However, the plans did not work out at first, causing a recession that some call “The Great Inflation.” The national debt heightened substantially, and the rate of unemployment reached up to eleven percent. Despite these negative outcomes, the economy experienced a sudden growth and prosperity in 1983, which was
In a time of political chaos, numerous approaches to contending with the USSR were offered by various politicians, yet “the man who got things right from the start was, at first glance, an unlikely statesman… Through a combination of vision, tenacity, patience, and improvisational skill, he produced what Henry Kissinger terms ‘the most stunning diplomatic feat of the modern era…’ As Margaret Thatcher put it, ‘Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot’” (D’Souza). Henry Kissinger was an “old nemesis” of Reagan, yet even he “observed that while it was Bush who presided over the final disintegration of the Soviet empire, ‘it was Ronald Reagan's Presidency which marked the turning point.’ [Additionally,] Cardinal Casaroli, the Vatican secretary of state, remarked publicly that the Reagan military buildup, which he had opposed at the time, had led to the collapse of Communism” (D’Souza). The great quantity of figures who have acknowledged the intelligence Reagan’s actions validates these actions as such. Many democratic opponents argued that “the West should ingratiate itself with the Soviet Union by pursuing ‘the stuffed-goose option—that is, providing them with all the grain and consumer goods they need.’ If Reagan had taken this advice when it was offered in 1982, the Soviet empire
Despite the increase of defense projects and counter-Soviet initiatives, Reagan did desire for negotiation and improve relations between Washington and Kremlin (Rossinow, 224). Soon afterward, during his second term, Reagan held meetings with leader Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom he negotiated a treaty to eliminate a range of nuclear weapons. Between the two men was a forged relationship- as a partnership, as friends. Reagan, surprisingly, even suggested that both powers should do what they can to ensure that such weapons entirely removed from the world (Rossinow, 232)- although the proposal 's implementation did not work, it still did prove interestingly of Reagan 's thinking to establish disarmament, even if it never happened. Nonetheless, ending the war after so many decades of tension was a monumental triumph for the US and American policy.
There was no doubt that the most controversial and dangerous branch of people in the world was the Soviet Union. Coming to fame after World War II, the USSR was a state that ruled with communism and tyranny, and was a threat to the United States. Reagan wanted to end this association as quickly as he could. Known as the greatest achievement of his career, President Reagan ended the Cold War, and brought an end to communism.
President Reagan attempted to change the way things were happening in America. He created “Reaganomics” to clean up the mess that was created by former presidents. Reaganomics had four important objectives. Number one was reducing the growth of government spending. Second, reduce the marginal tax rates on income from both labor and capital.
Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency as not only the 40th president of the United States, but also as the eighth United States president to preside over the Cold War. That conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union began roughly around 1945, as a direct result of World War II, with fortunes and policies having ebbed and flowed over the thirty-six years prior to Reagan’s taking office. Throughout those nearly four decades, there have been arms races, space races, containment preventing the spread of communism, a congressional “red scare” (also known as “McCarthyism”), and further rising of tensions with the Cuban Missile Crisis which acted as perhaps the Cold War’s absolute zenith. Thus with the missile crisis still in
His goal was to reduce the drug use in America. With him starting the war on drugs his wife Orchestrated the just say no program and reagan passed 5 new acts and laws to keep people from buying, selling, or using drugs. It was a success because it really made it hard for people to get and do drugs because of all the harsh laws that were surrounding the trade. His final success was major and that was ending the cold war. From the day he was elected in 1980 he was against communism, calling the soviets an evil empire, and even proposing a Strategic Defence Initiative to protect the US if it were ever to be shot by a nuke. Luckily for Reagan and the entire US in 1985 the 2 leaders met to discuss limiting the Cold War. The both agreed to limit their stockpiles effectively ending the arms race. The soviet leader even agreed to let people choose their own government. A few years later in 1989 East Germans began tearing down the Berlin Wall( the ultimate symbol of Soviet oppression), and as the wall fell Germany became reunited as one democratic country. The result of this was all the European nations under Soviet control demanding freedom and the Soviet Union eventually falling apart in
When he had became president he had many ideas. Ronald Reagan wanted to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, take a strong stand against communist around the world, and try to renew America’s patriotism. Which he was very successful in these things but what he was really known for was that he ended the Cold War, made peace through strength, Nuclear Missile cut, cut taxes, and did a thing called Reaganomics. Reaganomic is when Ronald widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets. Domestic spending restraint helped fuel an economic boom which lasted for two decades. From Reaganomic 16 million jobs were created as well. The name comes from supporters of Reagan's policies alike. This theory is that when Ronald Reagan decreases in taxes, especially for corporations, and that will be the best way to stimulate economic growth. It is also known as the “trickle down” effect. His idea is that if the expenses of corporations are reduced, the savings will "trickle down" to the rest of the economy, spurring growth. Reaganomic was a great idea and that help out America's
This essay will focus on the Reagan Administration which spanned from January 1981 to January 1989. When Reagan became President, he had only one clear, defined foreign policy goal – containment of the Soviet Union, or the “evil empire” as he referred to it. He primarily wanted to stop the USSR from growing larger and to keep other non-Communist countries from becoming Communist. In the past, American presidents had used a theory called the “Domino Theory” to justify the need for intervention around
Reagan was known for his “Reaganomics”, his policies based on supply-side economics or trickle-down theory. This was his belief on how to fix the nation’s economic disasters. Reaganomics had the idea that if there was a cut in taxes, particularly corporation taxes, economic development would increase. It would kindle job and economic growth by reducing domestic program spending by the government, the shrinking of individual investment and business investment taxes, decreasing the number of regulations on businesses, and maintaining slower economic money growth.
Critics remarked that Ronald Reagan tended to perceive things in terms of black and white, and his attitude toward Soviet concerns was no different. The organizing principle of Reagan's defense and foreign polices was anti-Communism, and Soviet policy to him pervaded every part of the globe. Each of Reagan's predecessors, from 1945 onwards, had been occupied with the possible Soviet threat towards America but Reagan was obsessed with it. Unlike his predecessors, too, he saw no possibility of compromise with the USSR, simply discounting communism as "a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written" (Dallek, 129).
He uses aggressive and reconciliation strategy. For the aggressive strategy, he supports the opposite site of the soviet. Reagan excites people who live in the east of European countries to flight with communism. He launches the SDI which makes the Soviet afraid in America’s economy and military. However, he also uses the reconciliation strategy to meet with Gorbachev for reducing the number of nuclear arms. He meets with Gorbachev several times for agreement.
Reaganomics refers to economic policies implemented during President Reagan’s administration from 1981-1989. The main ideology of Reaganomics was conservation which promoted that “government is the problem, not solution”. That means, society and market would function better with limited government power and regulations. Accordingly, Social wealth was distributed by unrestricted market, and profits that capitalists earned would trickle down to the bottom of society. In this way, people were in charge of improving their lives instead of relying on the aid of government. In order to recover from the economic crisis occurred between 1981and1982, the major Reaganomics objectives was to reduce government intervention in business and social aids. The policies were specified as marginal tax cut, tightening money supply, reducing social welfare programs and regulations. Generally, Reaganomics that impact citizens the most would be tax cut, reducing welfares and regulations.