Download Anti-communism and Reagan`s foreign policy

Anti-communism and Reagan’s
foreign policy
The guiding principle of Reagan’s
foreign policy was anti-communism
“Evil Empire”
• Reagan adopted a more
aggressive attitude toward
the Soviet Union.
Defense Spending
• Dramatic increase from $158 billion during the
Carter administration to $216 billion per year.
This is higher than during the Vietnam War.
•
•
•
•
•
Bombers
Missiles
Nuclear weapons in Europe
Larger Navy
A rapid deployment force
Reactions to Reagan’s policies
• Rally of 700,000 people in
NYC in 1982
• Hundreds of thousands of
Europeans protest
deployment of new US
missiles in NATO
countries
• An Iranian-sponsored
terrorist group exploded a
car bomb near a Marine
barracks in Lebanon
killing 241 Americans
After Lebanon
• Army Colonel Colin
Powell approved
decision to withdraw
from Lebanon, believing
that “America
[was]sticking its hand
into a thousand-yearold hornet’s nest.”
Reagan advocates SDI
• Strategic Defense
Initiative
• So-called “Star Wars”
• SDI violated 1972 antiballistic missile treaty
• Reagan’s ideas on SDI
overly optimistic
Non-state organizations
• Most countries, including the Soviets, could
not afford to compete with the money the US
invested in weaponry
• Non-state organizations or “terrorist groups”
responded with guerilla tactics, bombings,
and attacks.
Hezbollah
• A Shite Muslim group
backed by Iran and
Syria, founded in
Lebanon in 1982 after
Israeli forces invaded
that country to stop the
Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) from
using Lebanon to
launch attacks on Israel.
Fight against Communism around the
world
• Aided Afghan rebels against the Soviet-backed
government in Afghanistan
• In the African nation of Angola, the US armed
rebel forces against the government
supported by the Soviets and Cuba
• Sided with South African government which
was brutally suppressing black protest against
apartheid.
Congress
• US Congress went against Reagan’s policy in
So Africa, imposing sanctions against that
government
• US Congress would not approve aid for the
Nicaraguan “contras”
• US Congress approved $4 billion during the
1980s sent to El Salvador’s brutal military
Fight Against Communism, Caribbean
and Latin America
• Reagan Administration
invades Grenada
• Propped up the brutal
government of El
Salvador because it was
anti-communist
• Supported the “contras”
in Nicaragua, those
opposing the Socialist
but elected government
What accounts for the “thaw” in the
Cold War?
• A new Soviet leader in Mikail Gorbachev who
introduced some elements of free enterprise
• “glasnost” or greater freedom of expression
• Huge expenditures on defense spending were
a motivation for arms reductions talks
Gorbachev
• Arrives at agreement
with Reagan to
eliminate all short and
medium range missiles
from Europe
• Announced a gradual
withdrawal from
Afghanistan