Foreign Policy and Affairs

The heart of Reagan’s foreign policy and affairs was the prevention of communist expansion. His main focus was on the Soviet Union. He believed that only through military preparedness can the world achieve a stabled peace.

The Reagan Doctrine was passed in which US offered financial and logistics support to anti-communism opposition in Central Europe. Aid was not only given to Europe. Since the 1979, Carter had sent Nicaragua aid for defeating dictatorship, but in 1981, Reagan charged Nicaragua as a Soviet outpost that was exporting revolution to other Central American countries. He cut the aids and turned to support the Contras, which were guerrilla forces against communism. He also sent CIA men to help but with no congressional approval. In result, Congress passed the Boland Amendment to ban US aid to the Contras for 2 years, but Reagan still found ways to aid them. Regan also sent troops to Grenada which was suspected as developing ties to communist Cuba. Although Reagan’s goal to stop communism in Central America faltered, his support to the rebels fighting the Soviet troops in Afghanistan caused the Soviets to withdraw their troops ending the 8 year long war.

Reagan was also dedicated in stopping terrorist. In 1983, a terrorist group loyal to Iran took 52 Americans hostage in Lebanon. Reagan urged the US to not sell arms to Iran for war against Iraq saying, “America will never make concessions to terrorists.” Because of this, the US was shocked to learn that in 1986, Reagan had approved the selling of arms to Iran in exchange for 7 American hostages. Some of the profit was sent to the Contras directly violating the Boland Amendment. This became known as the Iran-Contra Scandal. Even though the scandal did bring a bad reputation for Reagan, he was able to rebuilt his reputation due to his brilliant strategy dealing with the Soviets.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet leader during this time. He passed the glasnost and perestroika to create more freedom and reconstruct the Soviet society. He also believed that a better relationship with the US would allow the Soviet to reduce military spending and reform its economy. Reagan took this opportunity to negotiate peace with Gorbachev. On Dec. 1987 in Washington Summit, they both agreed to and signed the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty which eliminated entire class of intermediate-range nuclear missiles and also the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) which reduced strategic nuclear arsenals by 50%. Earlier on in the year, Reagan also made in a speech at the Berlin Wall to Gorbachev that if he seeks peace, liberalization, and prosperity for his nation, he must knock down the Berlin Wall. It was not until 1989 when Gorbachev took Reagan’s advice and knocked down the Berlin Wall creating free passage and better relationships between the West and East of Berlin. Reagan “Star Wars” defense system also served its purpose. Gorbachev wanted to stop nuclear arms race but he was fearful of the US SDI. Reagan knew that his program would cause the Soviets to build up their arms and they did, but because the US had a good economy and the Soviets did not, the Soviet failed to keep the race and it hurt the economy a great deal, also leading to the fall of the Soviets in 1991.