Transcript The Reagan Years

THE REAGAN YEARS: 1981-89
Adapted from a work created by the University of
Nebraska at Omaha
Michael Quiñones
 Ronald Reagan:
President, 1981-89
 George H.W. Bush:
Vice-president , 1981-89
 Casper Weinberger:
Secretary of Defense,
1981-87
A more authoritative stance
towards the U.S.S.R.
 The Reagan administration placed
competition and possibility of war with Soviet
Union at the center of its defense & foreign
policy.
 Pursued large build-up of U.S military forces.
 Took a more active stance towards combating
Communist insurgencies.
Reagan Doctrine
 Called for helping anti-Communist movements around the globe. Examples:
 Nicaragua: aid for the contras (anti-Sandinista guerillas).
 Afghanistan: aid for Mujahadeen tribesmen.
 Angola: aid for UNITA
Increased defense spending
 Military budgets increased for six straight
years (FY1980-85).
 Reagan Administration spent about $2.4
trillion.
 Defense budgets rose to $290-300 billion
annually.
Money spent on…
 Maintenance, training,
and compensation.
 New weapons systems.
 B-1 bomber
 Trident II missile
 MX missile
 new ships
Strategic Defense Initiative
 Announced March
1983.
 a/k/a “Star Wars”
 Sought to develop a
system to destroy
incoming missiles
Other effects…
 1980-86: U.S. national debt doubled.
 Debt service payments tripled.
 Waste & fraud in defense procurement
reaches alarming levels.
 $400-$500 for a hammer?
Arms control: Strategic Arms
Reduction Talks (START)
 U.S.-U.S.S.R. negotiations from 1981-91.
 Almost produce an agreement during
Reagan-Gorbachev meeting at Reykjavik,
Iceland, 1986.
 Summit fails on issue of SDI
 START talks produce treaty in 1991
Reagan & NATO
 U.S.: Gets allies to continue deployment of
Pershing II & GLCM’s, and to spend more for
defense.
 Army and USAF get NATO to adopt “AirLand
Battle” as common doctrine to for defeating a
Warsaw Pact invasion.
 Allies: push U.S. on negotiations to reduce
theater nuclear and conventional forces.
December 1987: INF Treaty
 U.S. & U.S.S.R. agreed to eliminate all their
intermediate-range (300-3,400 mile) groundlaunched ballistic and cruise missiles.
 Included provisions for on-site inspections.
 All such missiles and related equipment
destroyed by May 1991.
U.S. involvement in Latin
America
 El Salvador: American aid and
advisors sent to help the
government
 Fighting the Frente Martí
Liberación Nacional (FMLN) since
1979.
 Nicaragua: Began helping
groups opposed to the
Sandinista regime (contras).
October 1983:
Grenada
 Soldiers from U.S. and
Caribbean nations
invade.
 Follows a coup
 Concern about
expanding Cuban and
Soviet influence.
 Anxiety regarding U.S.
medical students.
Problems in the Middle East
 Israel & Lebanon
 Moammar Gaddafi &
terrorism [Reagan
launched missile
strikes that killed
Gaddafi’s adopted
daughter at his palace]
 The Persian Gulf
1982: Israel invades Lebanon
 Goal to drive out
Palestinian groups.
 U.S. sent Marine
expeditionary unit to help
enforce a ceasefire.
 October 23: truck bomb
blows up the Marine
barracks
 220 soldiers die, 241 total.
Terrorist incidents on the
rise
 Attacks & hijackings double, 1983-85.
 Led to 1,000 U.S. casualties
 Most famous incident: 1985 hijacking of the
Achille Lauro
 After event, US Navy jets force down plane
carrying hijackers to Tunisia.
1986: U.S.-Libyan tensions
rise
 Naval incidents.
 West Berlin bombing
tied to Gaddafi.
 Reagan orders
bombing of Tripoli and
Benghazi.
 Mostly military targets
destroyed, 200
casualties.
Problems in the Persian Gulf
 Iran: fundamentalist
Islamic state, hostile to
U.S. interests.
 Funding terrorist
movements.
 Region large producer
of oil.
1980-88: Iran-Iraq War
 Iraq received more foreign assistance, including
official U.S. aid.
 Both sides attacked Gulf shipping.
U.S. looks to Saudi Arabia
as a regional ally.
 Saudis had influence over other Mid-East
nations, and indirectly over Palestinians.
 supported mujaheddin in Afghanistan
 Spent money to buy American arms, and
allowed U.S. to build bases on Saudi soil.
Attacks on Gulf shipping rise.
 1987-88: U.S. Navy deploys to Gulf and Red
Sea to protect tanker shipping.
 Destroys Iranian gunboats and other vessels,
missile sites, and attacks bases.
 Iran responds with mine laying.
 Worst U.S. goof: shooting down an Iranian
airliner.
U.S.S. Stark
 U.S. frigate fired upon by an Iraqi fighter.
 Resulted in 37 deaths.
Second-term problems for the
Reagan Administration
 Budget and debt issues.
 Congressional opposition.
 Lax oversight of subordinates leads to
political crisis.
Iran-Contra Affair
 Administration officials arrange
secret arms sales to Iran, some
proceeds diverted to contras.
 Hope to release hostages in
Lebanon, influence Hezbollah.
 Violated U.S. law that
prohibited arms sales to the
contras, and Administration’s
own stated policy not to
negotiate with terrorists.
Changes in the Soviet Union
 Mikhail Gorbachev: General
Secretary of the Communist
Party, 1985-91.
 Sought better relations with the
West
 Gorbachev pursued internal
reforms:
Perestroїka-was a domestic policy
established to undermine internal
Soviet corruption and provide
transparency through a “new
openness.”
Glasnost-was the decentralization
of the Soviet regime and is
believed to have created
resentment and led to the
dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev: Foreign Policy
Highlights
 1986, meets with Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Though fails in near term, ultimately leads to:
 INF Treaty, 1987
 START Treaty, 1991
 1988, announces U.S.S.R.:
 Will pull troops out of Afghanistan.
 Will allow Eastern bloc countries to determine affairs.
 Will unilaterally begin reducing conventional forces in
Europe.
“Democracy” and Boris Yeltsin
 Communist party moderate Boris
Yeltsin became the first popularly
elected president of Russia.
 He expanded free market reforms
started under Gorbachev and was
even able to stave off a civil war in
1991 when the army refused to
follow orders by groups opposed to
democracy to overthrow Yeltsin.
 Unfortunately in the 12 years after
Yeltsin left office the nation has slid
toward authoritarian rule once again.