...The Reagan Doctrine: Assisting the Overthrow of Pro-Soviet Regimes. Jonathan Burton November 2nd 2011 Strayer University POL300 Professor Popova-Nowak In April of 1978 the pro-Soviet People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) overthrew a corrupted Afghan Republic and would begin a domino effect that would culminate on September 11th 2001 in the New York skyline. Jimmy Carter had put into effect a doctrine of stating out loud that the Persian Gulf was vital to United States foreign political interest but showed no open displays of force. Behind the scenes the CIA had be involved with the movement to oust the PDPA. This forced the Russian government to send in 5,000 troops. Their aim was to place a Soviet chosen leader into power and after twelve hours of intense fighting, Barbrak Karmal was put in a plane and flown back to Moscow. This would begin a decade long occupation by the Russians and the United States got what it wanted; A Soviet Vietnam. The United States went to great lengths to supply this war against Communism and the hatred of the Soviets. China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others poured in money, weapons, and military advisors to aid the Mujahideen, the new name of the resistance fighters the CIA was backing. This covert operation was run out of the CIA until March of 1985. February 6th of 1985, President Ronald Reagan laid out his doctrine in the State of the Union Address. “WE must not break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent...
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...The Reagan Doctrine Ronald Reagan is best known for his speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall where he stated “Mister Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!” That was his challenge to the Soviet leader. Like presidents before him present Reagan had established a doctrine to eradicate the Soviet influence on the world. Ronald Reagan was not the first to propose a doctrine to fight the Soviet nation. In fact, he was just following in the footsteps of his predecessors. The Reagan doctrine was similar to of Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Carter in that they all wanted containment of the Soviet Union, but were as they used a more defensive method Reagan deployed a more Offensive style to dealing communist-controlled countries. Reagan laid out his interpretation of his doctrine at his State of the Union Address on February 6, 1985. "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth . . . Support for freedom fighters is self-defense." He went on to explain how he thought that Truman’s version of containment, originally designed to halt Stalin in Europe was now obsolete. President Reagan’s doctrine facilitated the use of US involvement in places like Angola where the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) fought against the Soviet and Cuban backed Angolan government. US involvement was also present in Afghanistan...
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...Doctrine of Reagan Mrs. J. Y. Baker Prof. Thomas Payne Jr. – POL 300 February 4, 2012 Doctrine of Reagan With the threat of The Cold War, U.S. Presidents beginning with Truman had to create doctrines to find remedies for the problem of communism and its expansion. The doctrine of Ronald W. Reagan was especially noteworthy because it initiated a revolutionized foreign policy after World War II. The Cold War brought trepidation of nuclear bombing that sent panic through the U.S. government. This is why previously the U.S. chose not to challenge the Soviet Union head-on. Officials felt American’s weren’t ready to send their loved ones to fight another war on foreign soil after Vietnam listed so many casualties. However with the risk of communism spreading further and possibly encompassing the globe, the U.S. just couldn’t take a backseat and keep quiet. In 1983, Reagan dubbed the Soviet Union an “evil empire” using a speech written by Dolan for the opposite purpose. As Diggins put it “Reagan dubbed the Soviet Union ‘the focus of evil’ of the entire world” (2007, pg. 29). Following the footsteps of his predecessor, President Carter, Reagan developed a way to fight the war on communism and make the people happy by preventing our military from suffering anymore casualties. President Carter got the ball rolling when the Soviet Union tried to invade Afghanistan in 1979. That’s when the U.S. supplied secret military aid to mujahideen fighters to assist in driving out the...
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...The Reagan Doctrine The Reagan Doctrine popularized during the two-term presidency of Ronald Wilson Reagan was one which he hinted to in his 1985 State of the Union Address. He affirmed to the American public and the world that “We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives--on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua--to defy Soviet aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense.” (Reagan, 1985, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents 21, no. 6). This theme was expanded upon afterwards by then Secretary of State George Shultz, and picked up by journalists, most notably Charles Krauthammer who was first to give the Reagan Doctrine its name in his column in the April 1, 1985 issue of Time magazine. The Reagan Doctrine contended that the United States had a duty to oppose the spread of communist dictatorships and to support the freedom fighters that were part of insurgencies defying Soviet aggression. Its policies were rooted in the 1950s anti-communist doctrines long supported by Americans; however it differed in that “containment” was no longer its only goal. Under the Reagan doctrinal policy it was now permissible to support freedom fighters seeking to throw off governments in counties suffering under communist domination. The rhetorical outpouring of the Reagan Doctrine was much more universal than its actual enactment of policy. This was attributed largely to the impact on U.S. interests...
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...analysts argue that the Reagan Doctrine as an innovation. According to Lagon: “The scope of the Reagan Doctrine was both broader and narrower than the predominant Cold War political doctrine of the United States, containment” (1994). The Reagan Doctrine played a role in Central America as well. For example, Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua was overthrown by the revolutionary front in 1979. In addition, the Doctrine also affected Cambodia and Angola. In all the regions affected by the Reagan Doctrine, the U.S. officials always supported the insurgents and used them as proxies for the United States. The assistance of the insurgencies, especially in Afghanistan, destabilized the pro-Soviet regimes in the process of consolidating totalitarian control over their countries. The first key element of the Reagan Doctrine was the balance of power. During the Cold War Era the US and the Soviets often clashed over Capitalism’s influence in the world against the spread of Communism. Soviet hegemony over east Europe had made it clear to the United States that its greatest threat was the Soviet Union and primary enemy was communism. Beyond the Central and Eastern European countries each superpower had allies in remote areas of the globe. Most of these peripheral nations favored the Communist idea of governance. Lagon states: “the relative balance in these Third World client states favored the Soviets in the latter of the 1970’s and 80’s” (1994). Therefore, Doctrines that began with Trumann...
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...Diplomacy Contemporary International Problems POL 300 March 4, 2012 The Reagan Doctrine was no different. Presupposing a world of evil and good, it operated on the theory that evil, was in the form of the USSR, and was getting the upper hand. To Reagan and his advisers, examples of Soviet treachery, including support for Marxist movements around the globe, were numerous; moreover, Soviet adventurism, from the Horn of Africa in the 1970s to Central America in the 1980s, showed no signs of lessening. Reagan was intent on stopping that trend—a trend, he believed, that President Carter had done little to reverse. Therefore, he adopted the vocabulary of the early Cold War, advocating policies equally aggressive and bold in range (Foreign Affairs). Reagan presented his vision at his State of the Union Address on February 6, 1985. "We must not break faith," he declared, "with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth." The president went on to compare anticommunist forces with American colonists who had fought the revolutionary war, relating those early patriots as "freedom fighters" for democracy. Providing aid to those groups was not only ethically just but geopolitically sensible. "Support for freedom fighters," Reagan declared, "is self-defense." It would be months before those declarations would take form as a permanent...
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...The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy Strayer University Summer 2014 The purpose of the Reagan Doctrine was to “sponsor anticommunist guerrillas who are trying to overthrow pro-Soviet regimes” (Roskin, 2010, p.58). It was implemented in the mid-1980’s; specifically mentioned in a discrete manner in President Reagan’s 1985 State of the Union Address and lasted less than a decade, until the end of the Cold War in 1991. One of the major challenges that President Reagan faced throughout his time in office was Communism and the Cold War. Although these issues had been a problem through several presidencies, they began to escalate in the early years of Reagan’s administration. Reagan believed that President Carter provided minimal leadership to reverse communism. In 1985 President Reagan introduced the principles of the doctrine through support of anti-communist revolutions. During his State of the Union Address in 1985 he compared, “anticommunist forces with American colonists who had fought the revolutionary war, describing those latter-day patriots as ‘freedom fighters’ for democracy” (“The Reagan Doctrine”, 2014, par. 2). The doctrine was created to decrease the Soviet influence in Africa, Asia and Latin America as part of the Reagan administration’s Cold War strategy (Reagan Doctrine, 2014). It has been argued that the Reagan doctrine contributed to the fall of communism itself. One of the diplomatic efforts that occurred during Reagan’s time in office was the support...
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...Ronald Reagan On Februray 6, 1911 Ronald Wilson Reagan has born into this world. His parents were Nelle and John Reagan who lived in Tampico, Illinois at the time. As Ronald grew up he attended nearby Dixon for high school and furthered his education at Eureka College. While attending college he played on the football team, acted in plays, and studied economics and sociology. After graduation he became an actor and appeared in 53 films, this was due to a screen test he passed and signed a contract with Hollywood. Ronald’s first marriage was to actress Jane Wyman. They had two children and there names were Maureen and Michael, Maureen passed away in 2001. His second marriage was to Nancy Davis in 1952, who was his wife during his presidency....
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...On Friday October 16, 1981, President Ronald Reagan wrote in his personal diary, “Central America is really the world’s next hotspot. Nicaragua is an armed camp supplied by Cuba and threatening a communist takeover of all of Central America.” (The Reagan Diaries, 2007) For the next eight years as Commander-in-Chief, this mindset would shape his perspective on the small Third World country about the size of North Carolina. The Administration’s policies, actions, and attitudes toward Nicaragua and other perceived hostile nations became known as “Reagan Doctrine.” The defeat of the Nicaraguan Revolution became the “cornerstone of the Reagan Central American policy and the test case of Reagan Doctrine.” (U.S. Intervention in the Nicaraguan Elections and American Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era, 1992) Reagan Doctrine was not a label coined by President Reagan or his administration. It was a term used later by his critics to define his foreign policy strategy for countries around the world. The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy to aid anti-communist, or more specifically, anti-Soviet insurgencies in the Third World during Reagan’s two terms as president from 1981-1989. The primary goal was to overthrow Marxist regimes and/or prevent Marxist regimes from becoming established. Reagan wasted no time getting started in the implementation of his foreign policy. The Administration’s first comprehensive “U.S. National Security Strategy,” which was a document approved by the President...
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...The Iran-Contra Affair In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the presidential election, and despite his efforts to keep the Republican majority in Congress, the Democrats swept both houses in the midterm elections. This democratic majority would complicate President Reagan’s agenda, specifically in regard to the Reagan Doctrine, a policy that promoted American support for nations resisting communism. One example of a complication would be the Boland Amendment. The Reagan Doctrine laid the foundation for monetary and military assistance to “freedom fighters” all over the world who were fighting against communism. It was the basis for not only America’s support for the Contras in Nicaragua, but also for Afghanistan against the Soviet Union and for the...
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...New Left • The Movement • Hippies • Beliefs: anti-war, rights for everyone, university reforms • Often young radicals • Was not the majority of Americans • Loosely organized Student for a Democratic Society • was one of the most active anti-war groups. • They were also against racial discrimination and strict college rules. • Rich mans war but a poor mans fight Free Speech Movement • Berkeley students disputed over rights of students • students challenged campus police and striked in large mass • nearly decade of campus turmoil • moved along to Columbia and other colleges Weathermen • 1969 • small groups of militants that cultivated popular imgae of student radicalism= cahos + disorder • responsible for arson, bombing= destroy campus buildings + lives • tried to drive out training programs + bar military recruiters from college campuses Antiwar rallies • in protest of Vietnam war, many individuals gathered to advocate against the political minds and US presence in Vietnam • 1960s (late '60s) • organized some of the largest political demonstrations in American history Anti-draft movement • Protests against the military draft. • 1960s and 70s • only voluntary participation. Many left the country Counterculture • culture with values and beliefs different then the mainstream • 1970s Woodstock • A music festival held in New York in 1969 • the beatles, jimmy hendrix Termination • Reducing size of bureaucracy by cutting programs/agencies - reduce budget ...
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...Iran-Contra Affair, which took place in 1985, during the Reagan administration. Shortly after taking office, President Reagan found himself facing difficult decisions, as many presidents have done so before and after him. Foreign policy is at the top of every presidents list during their term in office; Reagan’s foreign policy was to achieve “peace through strength”. This policy was put to the test when U.S. government officials became threatened of national security relations with two seemingly unrelated counties Iran and Nicaragua. Tension rose when radical Islamic movement overthrew U.S. backed Iran government in 1979. The U.S. tried bolstering relation with Iran by selling weapons to them, in turn the administration felt with the backing of Iran they could negotiate the release of seven American hostages being held by Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. On the other side of the world was Nicaragua which the U.S. has shown interest since the 20th century, due to the region’s close proximity to America. Relations with Nicaragua, falter after the Nicaragua government was toppled by a revolutionary government, the Sandinista Liberation Front. Tensions worsen, when Sandinistas sought relationship ties with Cuba and the Soviet Union. Reagan and his administration pushed political power to the brink by using profits from weapons sold to Iran to fund Contra militants to topple the Sandinista government. The action conducted by the Reagan administration was in direct violation of prohibited...
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...Diplomacy SHAMIKA WARD EMMANUEL OBUAH POL 300: Contemp Intl Problems May 31, 2013 The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy The Reagan Doctrine was the foreign policy in the United States, enacted by President Ronald Reagan. The doctrine was design to eradicate the communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that were authorized and corroborated by the Soviet Union. This assignment will review by what method the United States delivered open and private backing to guerrilla and resistance movements during the Regan years. Additionally, explain the political doctrine detailed events that occurred in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union invaded. As a final point, this assignment will define the benefits and drawbacks established on the Regan Doctrine. Summarize the Situation of U.S. Diplomatic of the Regan Doctrine During the course of the initial years of the Cold War, Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter all endorsed dogmas against communism in order to enclose it. Ronald Regan prohibited their détente policy in 1979, when the Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan. This alone demonstrated that policies that only contain communism were unproductive. Regan criticized in the compromise policy when it emanated to any communist government. As an alternative, Reagan proposed the Rollback policy. The creation of the Reagan Doctrine moved from containment and dispersal to eradicating all current communist governments. Likewise, the United States wanted to rise...
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...Who Is Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan is the former governor of California, a former Hollywood actor, but he will most be remembered as the 40th President of the United States of America. Ronald Reagan is the most underrated President in the history of this great country. His contributions to the growth of the United States economy throughout his two terms in office are un-matched. He successfully curbed inflation and reduced government spending, ended the Cold War, fought hard against the war on drugs, and successfully survived several assassination attempts. Ending the Cold War The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc and powers in the Eastern Bloc. The cold was started in 1947 and lasted until its official ending in 1991. It was referred to as the “Cold War” because instead of using actual weapons the two sides used verbal weapons in the form of information and threats. Enter Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States. Reagan was determined to end the Cold War and therefore introduced what would become known as the Reagan Doctrine. The Reagan Doctrine took the United States cold war plan into Third World Countries and provided military and economic support to various dictatorships in these countries to help aid the resistance of any revolutionary movement. He also armed oppositional armies so that they may rise up against any pro-Soviet government. The outcome of all of Reagan’s efforts...
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...Ronald Wilson Reagan was born February 6, 1911 in a town called Tampico Illinois. His parents, Jack and Nelle Reagan were loving parents they were somewhat poor. His father worked as a shoe salesman, and they moved around during Ronald’s early years until they settled down in a town in Illinois called Dixon. As a child Ronald didn’t exactly like his name so he had the nickname “Dutch” that his father gave him for the reason that his dad said when he was born he looked like a small fat Dutchman. When he was in his high school years he was a lifeguard at a park by Rock River where he rescued 77 people. He ended up graduating from Dixon high school in 1928. He then found a job in Iowa where he was a sports announcer. He then got on with...
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