A Unique and Extraordinary Moment
Gorbachev, Reagan, Bush, and the End of the Cold War, 1981-1991
Even though the United States and Soviet Russia have faced nuclear crisis several times, they have finally compromised that they would end the Cold War. The President of the United State, Donald Reagan and Soviet Russia Leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that the US and Soviet Russia is old friend and the Cold War was ended.
Donald Reagan is known as an extraordinary president because of his character and his practices. He was a radio speaker and actor. He produced several training movies for the air force. He became the president of the United States in 1981 by unseating the former president Jimmy Carter. Even though he had had no experience about foreign policy, he believed that communism is the most important enemy and it must be destroyed. He thought that he should empower military and increase military arsenal to defeat Soviet Russia. In his opinion, the US should increase its military investment. Therefore, Soviet Russia would have to surrender and accept disarmament. His foreign policy was idealistic and instinctive unilateralism but it was pragmatic too.
On the other hand, his policies about Middle East was unclear and included many weaknesses. During the Lebanese Civil War in 1983, he decided to intervene. However, the US army lost its 250-marine troop.
During his presidency, he attempted to apply his doctrine. According to Reagan Doctrine, the US has supported the
His policy of reaganomics, also known as supply-side economics, took two years to create a change in the United States economy, but was overall a success. He negotiated with the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to form the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) which reduced the global number of nuclear armaments. Reagan even appointed the first female Supreme Court justice- Sandra Day O’Connor. While Reagan did an incredible number of good things, he simply did not do other things. For example, he
U.S. foreign policy changed after the Cold War after the U.S. was unsure of what to do with their increased national defense. Many critics questioned the need for heavy defense spending and the large number of U.S. bases. For most of the twentieth century, the Cold War defined U.S. foreign policy as it centered around the idea of containment. After the Soviet Union fell, Americans shifted their focus from containing communism to solving several ethnic, religious, and cultural conflicts, more specifically toward peacekeeping, globalization, and humanitarian ideology. One such result of this foreign policy was direct action in the Gulf War in 1990; the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm deployed during the gulf war was viewed widely as a success and helped to reinforce Bush’s ideals about a new world
Democratic localism was also enforced to keep the government at bay, allowing people to make their own economic decisions. Capitalism was renewed due to growth. Americans were enjoying various freedoms in politics, religion and travel. Nixon stated in one of his speeches that the United States had “come closest to the idea of prosperity for all in a classless society (166).”
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
Offner, Arnold, "Provincialism and Confrontation: Truman’s Responsibility" in Major Problems in American Foreign Relations, Volume II.
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
1. How NSC-68 influenced America’s response to Communist North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in June 1950 and to Communist expansion in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. The NSC-68 called for military assistance programs that would meet the requirements of our allies. Since South Korea was an ally, we assisted them in repelling the invasion of another communist nation. This help for South Korea meant that a communist nation would be weakened and therefore possibly cripple a potential ally for the Soviet Union. Also, South Korea would then respond to a call for aid if the Soviet Union ever attacked
ending of the cold war. It has been said that President Ronald Reagan ended the
Ronald Reagan has the belief that America is a superior nation. He believes that it is the center of morality and that it has the role of ensuring that its best ideals are spread to the rest of the world. He believed that people and especially the Americans are moral enough such that they were not in a position to oppress other people. He believes that the American children need to pray in
During his entire Presidency, Reagan had to deal with the Cold War. The Reagan Doctrine was created and Reagan went to work trying to begin the collapse of the communist government in Africa, Asia, and
In 1961 President John F Kennedy put together a doctrine, which altered from President Eisenhower’s one. It was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare.” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58) It was a time when the Cold War was at its height and nuclear weapons a mass threat and source of power. This doctrine was aimed at using alternative means before opening into combat. This, in light of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it succeeded in doing.
Ronald Reagan worked to bring the ideal of American back to the country, to set the economy on the right track, and to end the Communist threat that had been present since the end of World War II. Lowered the federal income tax rate significantly with the signing of the Economic Recovery Tax Act. Escalated the War on Drugs campaign and specified a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses. Increased spending on national defense and diplomacy and ushered in a close to the Cold War.
In the minds of many Americans Ronald Reagan is the president that ended the Cold War, but is this view accurate? They claim Reagan's unprecedented military spending forced the Soviets to crumble. However, many critics of the president's outspending theory claim that the Russian economy would have imploded without such spending, and a military buildup of that kind did nothing but delay peace. Although, Reagan's willingness to negotiate was a clear factor in ending the Cold War, his aggressive arms race may have done more to forestall peace than abet it. The ascendance of Mikhail Gorbachev to power, the stagnating economy of Russia, and the personal friendship forged between Gorbachev and Reagan were the clear factors that contributed to
The Cold War was a response to the perceived threat by the United States that Communism would interfere with national security and economic stakes in the world. It was a perceived threat by communist countries that the United States would take to the world. During the Cold War, the United States, Russia, and other countries made efforts to avoid another world war, while warring in proxy in other lands. The devastation caused by the hydrogen bombs exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the next technological advancements became only deterrents to the public. Governments had their own agenda which would result in worsening the strain between nations. The United States hid behind a curtain of nationalism resulting in increased
The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in major shift in United States foreign policy. For years, the United States supported tyrannical dictators in return for stable anti-communist government receptive to United States interests. The Cold War resulted in a new world order with the United States as the lone global hegemonic power. In Eastern Europe in particular, the end of the Cold War ushered in an era of economic growth and a large increase in the number of liberal democracies. Although the world saw a large increase in liberal democracies, a new regime type referred to as competitive authoritarianism began to emerge. According to Levitsky and Way, “In competitive authoritarian regimes, formal