Download Reagan and Bush Sr. 1981-1993

REAGAN AND BUSH SR.
1981-1993
RONALD REAGAN
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Represented the New Right
Coalition:
new group of conservatives with new
ideas of the role of government in
foreign and domestic issues
 Involved the revival of the Republican
Party due to the fall of the Democratic
Party (Vietnam and troubled economy)
 Criticized big government, high taxes
and communism

Lived through an assassination
attempt
 Appointed the first female justice to
the Supreme Court, Sandra Day
O’Connor
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REAGAN AND THE ECONOMY (REAGANOMICS)
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Used supply-side economics that relies on the
belief that if taxes are reduced, people will
work more and have more money to spend
causing the economy to grow, then the
government can collect more in taxes (sales not
income)
Economic Recovery Act reduced taxes by 25%
with the wealthy receiving the largest tax cut
so they could take the money they saved to
invest in new businesses which would help
everyone (trickle-down economics)
Also called for deregulation in which the government
removes its control over industries, specifically
airlines
Still ran a deficit and debt
Soon the economy recovered from the recession
REAGAN AND THE COLD WAR
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His plan was to weaken communism by
challenging it as much as possible without
provoking a military battle…ultimately just
outspend the Soviets
Bring down smaller communists nations
 Aid anticommunists rebellions
 Built up the military by developing new nuclear
missiles…out produce Soviet’s
 Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars): a plan
that would set up ground based and spacebased lasers that would destroy any missiles
aimed at the US before they could reach their
targets…big blow to Soviet confidence and
dominance
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CHANGE IN THE SOVIET UNION

Mikhail Gorbachev became the
leader of the SU and brought new
ideas and better relations with the
US and Reagan
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Knew he could not keep up with Reagan's
military spending
Signed the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Force Treaty which banned
the launch of nuclear ballistic missiles
Signed the START I Treaty in which
both nations agreed to reduce the
number of nuclear weapons in the world
Eventually communism fell in the
Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall fell,
Germany was reunited
again…communism was over and so
was the Cold War
TROUBLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Reagan sent troops to Lebanon in an attempt to
bring peace to the nations civil war
Many Marines killed and finally withdraw
 Problems in Mid-East are complex and on-going
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Iran-Contra Affair: US sends weapons to
Iran if they pressured terrorists in
Lebanon…used the money to fund Contras
(anticommunists counterrevolutionaries) in
Nicaragua even though it had been banned
THE CHALLENGER DISASTER
The space shuttle the
Challenger broke away
in an explosion 73
seconds after take off,
killing all 7 crew
members
 Americans watched in
shock as the shuttle
disintegrated into the
Atlantic Ocean
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BUSH SR. IN OFFICE
Had promised not to raise
taxes but had to raise taxes in
an attempt to balance the
budget due to the deficit that
Reagan had created under
Reaganomics
 Americas role as world leader
could not last if she was
running a large deficit
 Signed the Americans with
Disabilities Act which
protected the disabled from
discrimination
 Appointed 2nd African
American to Supreme Court
(Clarence Thomas) to replace
Thurgood Marshall
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BUSH SR. AND FOREIGN POLICY
Tiananmen Square: prodemocracy Chinese students stage
protests so Chinese tanks rolled in and killed hundreds of
protestors…condemned by Bush but we still continued to
trade with China
 Nelson Mandela who had been in prison for leading an
antiapartheid movement, America supported his democratic
efforts and he later became the elected leader for South
Africans when he was released
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PERSIAN GULF WAR
Iraq under dictator Saddam
Hussein invaded Kuwait to
control their oil
deposits…America and the
United Nations will not tolerate
his aggressions…US worried that
he would set his sights on Saudi
Arabia next to control more
oil…US sends troops
 Operation Desert Storm:
America attacked Iraqi forces
devised and executed by General
Colin Powell with air attacks
eventually getting into Kuwait
with an Iraqi surrender
 Hussein is still in power
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