The purpose of this investigation is to determine the role Ronald Reagan had in ending the Cold War. This topic is important because now that it is becoming accepted that Reagan had a goal in mind of ending communism when he became president, it is time to determine the way he accomplished the task of ending the Cold War. The research will focus primarily on deciding whether or not it was through exploiting Soviet vulnerabilities, negotiations, or a military build-up. In answering the inquiry question, the main sources that will be used will be a book and National Security Decision Directive 75 (NSDD 75). The book, a biography of Reagan written by Paul Kengor, titled The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, views Reagan’s …show more content…
In January 1981 during a meeting with the National Security Planning Group, CIA director Bill Casey shared his opinions of how the US should take down the USSR and “Reagan agreed with Casey that the administration should launch a concerted effort to play on Soviet vulnerabilities” and started creating a plan on how to do just that (The Crusader).
Reagan wanted to show the world all the Soviet Union’s vulnerabilities that could be used to take it down. Using their vulnerabilities to our advantage by doing actions such as “covert financial and intelligence support to the Solidarity union in Poland and other opposition groups within the Soviet empire; financial and military support to the Afghan resistance; cooperative efforts with Saudi Arabia to drive down the price of oil, and limiting Soviet natural gas exports to the West, thereby reducing Soviet hard currency earnings; a campaign to limit Soviet access to Western high technology; a technological disinformation effort to help disrupt the Soviet economy; a massive U.S. defense buildup, including the SDI program, to put more pressure on Soviet economic resources; and financial, military and logistical support for anti-communist forces in several Third World countries” (Reagan and End of the Cold War).
“There are a number of important weaknesses and vulnerabilities within the Soviet empire which the U.S. should exploit. U.S. policies should seek wherever possible to encourage Soviet allies to distance
The Reagan Doctrine was the foreign policy in the United States, legislated by President Ronald Reagan. This doctrine was design to eliminate the communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that were indorsed and validated by the Soviet Union. This assignment will summarize how the United States provided open and private support to guerrilla and resistance movements during the Regan years. In addition, explicate the diplomatic doctrine specific events that occurred in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union invaded. Finally, this assignment will describe the advantages and disadvantages based on the Regan Doctrine. Summarize The Situation of U.S. Diplomatic of The Regan Doctrine Throughout the opening years of the Cold War, Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter all sanctioned policies against communism in order to contain it. Ronald Regan rejected their détente policy in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. This alone proved that policies that only contain communism were ineffective. Regan disapproved in the compromise policy when it came to any communist government. Instead, Reagan proposed the Rollback strategy. The making of the Reagan Doctrine shifted from containment and spreading to eliminating all current communist governments. Furthermore, the United States wanted to increase and encourage democracy and capitalism in replacement of ousted communistregimes (Conservapedia, 2012).Implementation of the Regan Doctrine was to provide
Reagan became president in 1981, which means that he was president of the U.S. during a time in which the Cold War began to draw to a close. (Fischer, 1997, p.477). Whereas his predecessors used détente, a more relaxed approach in order to reduce tension between the U.S. and USSR, Reagan and his advisers rejected this strategy (Authors, People and a Nation, p.833). This led to a turning point in the Cold War. Even though the Cold War ended in 1991, two years after Reagan’s presidency, Reagan is still known to have made a huge influence on ending the Cold War. This essay will investigate his actions and how they might have influenced the ending of the Cold War, by looking at how Reagan expressed his distrust toward the Soviet Union and communism, the ways in which Reagan expanded the arms race in order to bankrupt the USSR and other ways in which he tried to sabotage the Soviet economy, but also
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.
and its allies and the group of nations led by the Soviet Union. Direct military
In May 1981, Soviet leader, Yuri Andropov (a former chairman of the KGB) launched a program called Operation RYAN ("Nuclear Missile Attack") a response to the presumption that the United States would orchestrate an imminent first strike attack. The program focused on compiling intelligence on supposed contingency plans of the United States to launch a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union.
Throughout 1981 to 1991, Ronald Reagan was in actions with Mikhail Gorbachev and the Soviet Union, as there was several conflicts within the economy, Reagan decide to file a strategic policy re-evaluation in order for him to be able to adjust his methods and strategies to overcome the Soviet Union and arms control (Milestone pg.1). Ronald Reagan suggested that the policies of containment and détente would not bring a satisfactory end to the Cold War.The purpose of Reagan's containment was to stop the Soviet Union from spreading communism beyond the territories it already dominated.therefore, instead of détente, the Reagan wanted to contribute peace through strength by strengthening America's economic and military power(Marriott pg.5). As Reagan stated, "Our strategy is defensive; our aim is to protect the peace by ensuring that no adversaries ever conclude they could best us in a war of their own choosing”( Marriott pg.5).One of the most effective ways in which his economic policies weakened was by the Soviet Union in which they decide to help by decreasing the price of oil during the 1980s,therefore the
Reagan saw the Soviets at the heart of every international dispute, from revolution in Central America to international terrorism in the Middle East. To thwart the Soviets, Reagan called for the largest and most expensive peacetime military buildup in American history (reaganfoundation).
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).
Some people supported Reagan’s policy of peace through strength, but others thought it was teasing the Soviet Union and would cause conflict.
Reagan's infamous aggressive, but to-the-point rhetoric was both a positive and a negative in bringing about the demise of the Soviet Union. Combined with the massive arms race that Reagan had ignited (with the United States doing most of the racing), the president's harsh words scared Russian leaders of an eminent attack. Constantly referring to the USSR as an "evil empire," was somewhat counterproductive. But Reagan's challenging rhetoric served mostly as a positive factor in ending the Cold War. He was not one to beat around the bush, and demanded results. Perhaps his most famous line was when he went to Berlin and commanded, " Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Reagan also new that only taking the hard-line approach would not succeed in bringing about peace and he was willing to tone down the brashness of his remarks in return for results. This is most evident in his summit meetings
President Reagan biggest challenge was the Cold War and the Soviet Union. This was Reagan’s biggest achievement for foreign policy during his administration. Early on in his Presidency he denounced the Soviet Union as still a in his first press conference and said “ We win and they lose”. Also said “world revolution and a one-world Socialist-Communist state.” As he wrote in his official autobiography, “I decided we had to send as powerful a message as we could to the Russians that we weren’t going to stand by anymore while they armed and financed terrorists and subverted democratic governments.” Reagan knew that the Soviet Union and their communist economic based economy was starting to fail. He based this on intelligence reports and his life long study on the failure of communism. In May of 1982 when giving a speech at Eureka College He stated that the Soviet empire was “faltering because rigid centralized control has destroyed incentives for innovation, efficiency, and individual achievement.” President Reagan increased military spending and created programs. One of the most famous ones was SDI—the Strategic Defense
The United States and Soviet Union began as allies to each other until they both lost trust in each other and fear of the other’s increasing power. President Harry Truman reported during the Cold War, “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation [domination] by armed minorities or by outside pressure. Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far-reaching to the West. The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life as died”(Doc.2). Truman exhibited that the United States had chosen its side, the capitalist, and they would do everything to keep communism contained. This containment policy was used by the United States, and they did everything in their power to “contain” communism. It included using the Marshall Plan to ensure that communism would
Many scholars see the Regan’s era defence build-up as a single most important factor in bringing down Soviet Union. US official believed that by rapid
This investigation focuses on the impact that President Ronald Reagan had on ending the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union during the 1980’s. The use of historian argumentation, primary sources, such as Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security, and analytical essays by well known professors, such as John Gaddis’s excerpt from Major Problems in American History Since 1945 – titled “Ronald Reagan’s Cold War Victory” – will be utilized. The origins, purposes, values,
He was ensuring that Soviet leaders would never think they could defeat the US and that they would prepare for successful negotiations (Kaplan 15). In order to show clear superiority over the Soviet Union, he increased defense and research spending that would back up foreign policy goals such as suppressing communism (Matlock 61). One of the important initiatives that Reagan took was the Strategic Defense Initiative. This was essentially a program he launched that was responsible for the research and development of a space-based system to defend the United States from any weapon of mass destruction (Fitzgerald 25). The purpose of the program was to deter attacks from Soviet forces, provide the United States with capability to respond to any Soviet forces, and to ensure that peace would be kept between the Soviet Union and America (Reagan). The Strategic Defense Initiative had a major impact on the Soviet foreign policy because it hinted at a race involving major arms, spending, and defense in which the Soviet Union could not afford to compete with the United States (Fitzgerald 416). Though it was never a success, the rapid research and build-up of technology the Americans had pulled off intimidated the Soviet Union, which ultimately responded with rash decisions and increased spending, making the failing