Essay on The Legacy of President Ronald Reagan

The 20th century consisted of many difficult and controversial foreign policy decisions. From President Jimmy Carter, elected in 1977, to President Ronald Regan elected in 1981. Carter attempted at peacemaking efforts to help bring stability to the Middle East, but faced the challenge of the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979. He shaped his foreign policy through integrity, morality, and honest, to bring trust in the government to the American citizens as the previous president, Richard Nixon made the people lost their trust in the government. Ronald Regan supported a conservative foreign policy and greatly increased military spending, putting the United States in huge deficit. Ronald Regan is also given credit for the end of the Cold War, and

Thesis Statement: Ronald Reagan’s presidency was one of the most successful in United States history because he revitalized the failing economy, used his remarkable communication skills to reestablish America’s lost morale, and even played a vital role in ending the Cold War.

Perhaps Reagan's most controversial cause was his foreign policy. He wanted to prevent communist expansion and helped countries free themselves of it and believed the nation should negotiate with the Soviet Union. On Washington Summit in December of

The United States history during 1977 to 1989 went through two presidencies and whirlwind of events happened. When President Jimmy Carter became president he wanted to lower the inflation rates to make life easier for the people of the United States. While that was his goal it got completely derailed. Near the end of Jimmy Carters presidency, a group of Iranian students took over the U.S Embassy in Tehran and took people hostage. Over the course of the 444 days the hostages where held captive while the people of the United States voted for a new president to help lead them into a new direction. The people voted for Ronald Reagan. While he was president things didn’t go as he planned as well. The issues with Iran did not calm down and escalated to something bigger. After the Iran hostage crisis, the US had another issues with Iran and it was the Iran- Contra affair. During this essay I will be talking about the book called “Taken Hostage” by David Farber and the information in the book. The book is about the time frame of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and the issues with Iran and the hostage crisis. The second half of my essay is towards President Ronald Reagan’s and the issues about the Iran- Contra affair and the lasting issues between Iran and the United states.

Reagan increased defense spending. U.S. exports were falling, creating a negative balance of trade where the country was buying more from foreign countries than it was selling to them.

One of the significant events of Reagan that influenced public was Iran-Contra affair in 1986, which the United States was found guilty by the International Court of Justice of war crimes against Nicaragua. As a result, Reagan’s popularity slipped from 67 percent to 46 percent in less than a week (Mayer). By the time, it was the low point of the Reagan presidency (157, Ehrman) Add to this situation, the failure of space program led to negative ethos of Reagan in public’s mind. President Reagan understood this situation and tried to calm the hostilities by delivering the speech sincerely.

An argument that can be made in many directions, Ronald Reagan was a very good president and he does deserve much of the credit that he is given. Matter of opinion most people are overrated if they have to count on others to make their dreams and or goals achievable. Ronald Reagan did many great things but if not for many smart people to make them not sure how things would have been different today but main thought is the military. The military saw many improvements in technology under Reagan, at the same time Reagan was not in charge of designing new tanks or air craft other people were. Reagan did not have much to do with the hostages being released the people were not intimidated by Ronald Reagan to the point of giving up. They released the hostages because Carter was no longer in office. The people were mad at Carter for giving cancer treatment to their

President Ronald Reagan, the man who is accredited with ended the forty six year cold war was elected on Nov. 4, 1980. Reagan won his election with fifty percent of the popular vote over former President Jimmy Carter who had forty one percent. While Reagan as a president is praised for such successes as strengthening the national defense, stimulating growth in the U.S. economically, and as mentioned before he is considered the President who ended the Cold War. President Reagan had achieved many things by the end of his administration, but just as he had many successes his presidency was plagued with shortcomings and a handful of what could be considered flat out failures. The purpose of this writing is to establish and identify the ‘cons’ or failures of the Reagan administration, and provide a brief description of each different aspect of the administration.

Which followed through to Ford’s Administration and the Carter Administration. As well as the illegal bombing of Cambodia. Carter gets harassed about his evidence of his failed foreign policy because of the Iranian Hostage crisis, which was not handled well, and the credit for the solution belonged to Reagan.

in 1985 that the U.S. might sell arms to Iran through Israel with the goal of releasing American hostages held in Lebanon by Iranian groups (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). The arms would be used to aid Iran in their ongoing war against Iraq (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). Robert McFarlane, a national security advisor who brought the suggestion to President Reagan, believed that the deal would improve U.S.-Iran relations, in addition to Lebanese relations, thus giving the U.S. needed influence in the Middle East (Wolf PBS.org). However, several advisors to Reagan questioned the legality of such an act, as both U.S. policy, prohibiting straight arms-for-hostage swaps, and the embargo on arms to Iran, the Arms Export Control Act, condemned that course of action. (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). Though his advisors Caspar Weinberger (Secretary of Defense) and George Shultz (Secretary of State) opposed the sales, President Reagan listened to McFarlane (National Security Advisor) and William Casey (CIA director) and went through with the plan, but Reagan never actually signed the plan or reported it to Congress, as required by law (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). Thus, Reagan could later claim that he had no knowledge of the arms sales, as it was never formalized. Control of this operation was given to the National Security Council, which was also conducting aid operations to the contras (“The Iran-Contra

“The economic strain of the effort to keep up with the United States military brought the Soviets to the bargaining table and led to a de-escalation of their international military adventures” (Thomas Sowell, 2001). Reagan is the only president that may lay claim to the end of the Cold War that plagued America. However, a black mark on his record is the Iran-contra affair which involved the secret provision of funds from selling arms to Iran for Nicaraguan contra rebels (See Woodward and T. Draper, 2012). Despite the scandal of the Iran-contra affair, Reagan is praised for his foreign policies in which he spent a majority of his presidency playing the role of international peace-maker, leading to both a safer and more prosperous home and international front (George Nash,

As President, Ronald Reagan encountered many significant events; from surviving an assassination attempt, to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Perhaps the most significant event was the economic downturn. He came to office (much like President Obama) in the midst of an economic crisis; however, President Reagan was able to turn the economy around. How did he do this? In order to answer this question, you must first ask what the economy was like when he was sworn into office, how his policy changed from the prior administration’s policy, and how it contrasts our present economic policy.

This was astounding to most Americans. The same day the president is inaugurated the hostages are freed. What had the new president done that the old president had not? Some rational people will tell you that it was Carter that freed the hostages, not Reagan. There are others however that believe that the Iranians only freed them because Reagan was elected instead of Carter and had Carter been re-elected that the crisis would have gone on longer. This theory would claim that outside powers can use attacks and threats to influence elections and put in power whomever they want. Whatever the theoretical conclusions may have been what happened is that the hostages were freed and Ronald Reagan was

I have decided to write my research paper on the topic of Ronald Reagan's Domestic and Foreign Affairs. The reason that I choose this topic was because I have always been personally interested in Ronald Reagan's time in office and the national crisis he had to deal with. Reagan was awesome when it came to foreign policy because he knew how to negotiate with foreign leaders and their countries to get what he wanted. There were several instances during his time in office that he had the chance to use his ability to get the country out of danger. Domestic Affairs is another part of Reagan's presidency that was very important. He was able to take the country, which seemed to be in an economic slump and turn their economic status around.

A solution to the Nicaraguan problem seemed more difficult to solve, Reagan wanted desperately to help the “contras” but was mandated by congress to stay out of the affair. His advisors secretly proposed a way to kill two birds with one stone, a decision that came to be referred to as Ronald Reagan’s black mark on his almost spotless record on foreign policy. The U.S would sale weapons to Iran in return for hostages taken by Muslim Jihadist in Lebanon, and with the money Iran paid those weapons with the U.S would direct that money to the contras fighting the Sandinistas. While the reasons for the trade were honorable and the president was following the American policy of communist containment at the time, it was still nonetheless illegal and badly battered Reagan’s reputation.