When Reagan became President he had only one well-defined foreign policy goal: containing the Soviet Union or the "evil empire" as he once referred to it (Reagan 1983). He primarily wanted to stop the USSR from growing larger and to keep other non-Communist countries from becoming Communist. He disliked the decade-long Détente begun by President Nixon and continued by President Ford. Détente is defined as a relaxation of strained relations or tensions between nations, in this case the two nations being the United States and the Soviet Union. Reagan firmly believed that the USSR was using Détente and the SALT talks to take advantage of the United States.
When re-elections came up again in 1984, he obliterated any chance of anyone else to win in a landslide vote. With his second term now right on the way, he started to focus more on the foreign affairs now that he had the government and economy under control again. A lot of the foreign politics was focused for the most part on the ending of the cold war. Four years before even become the president, he gave his full opinion of his thoughts of the Cold War. A quote from Ronald Reagan with a conversation with Richard V. Allen says “My idea of the American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic.” “It is this: We win and they lose.
(Page 12) Reagan demanded that the Soviet’s “surrender “ (change their behavior) and without changing these behaviors, they would no longer receive the many benefit they were benefiting from, from the West. Sharansky explained that this had been a revolution in diplomatic thinking, and in doing this…Reagan was able to find the “Achilles Heel” of His enemies. PART 2: Sharansky’s formula for the mechanics of tyranny divided the world into two different categories. One category was free society in which people could speak freely of their opinions and not be punished for it and the second society was know as the fear society which was pretty much the opposite.
Ronald Reagan Foreign Policy When Reagan became president he began with only one well-defined foreign policy; he wanted to contain the Soviet Union. He wanted to stop them from growing any bigger and wanted to make sure that other countries did not become Communist. He didn’t like how relaxed President Nixon and President Ford had been to try to ease the relationship with the Soviets. He thoroughly believed that the Soviets were taking advantage of how relaxed the United States of America had been. Reagan thought that the United States needed to prepare its military defense systems just in case the Soviets decided to nuke the Americans.
They both reinforced their beliefs in the Paris Peace Accords time and time again. While this is the image that they portrayed to the American people, who wanted no part in Vietnam to begin with, Nixon and Kissinger could be seen as men who only wanted to satisfy Americans but not intend to keep their promises of peace. Behind the scenes, it is ultimately realized that Nixon and Kissinger knew full well that the Paris Peace Accords were destined for failure and its sole purpose was to appease Americans domestically and remove POW’s from behind enemy lines (Madaras Pg. 378). As soon as North Vietnam violated the agreements of the Accords, which was all but a guarantee, Nixon would fulfill his promise to South Vietnamese President
Also an unforgettable achievement of Reagans was ending the cold war which had been raging all the way back since World War 2 and America’s fear of communisms quest for world domination. He accomplished this by reversing the policy of détente and stood firm against the Soviet Union and giving aid to the rebels battling soviet-backed Marxists from Nicaragua to Angola which was critical in the ultimate collapse of the Soviet empire and ended the cold war. Despite the fact Reagan was excellent at speeches his belief in peace through strength became a realization and in the long run an important achievement. Basically since the military was diminished during the Carter years Reagan had to think of a way to rebuild and strengthen our military. He accomplished this by reviving the B-1 bomber that carter canceled, starting production of the MX missile, and pushing NATO to push Pershing missiles in West Germany.
Jimmy Carter also explained how there are 30,000 nuclear weapons world-wide and how our country possesses 12,000 and Russia possesses 16,000 weapons. Throughout his speech Carter stated how he was against the use of nuclear weapons and he “would characterize the US nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, military unnecessary and dreadfully dangerous” (Carter, Speech). Jimmy Carter also addressed the steps that need to be taken in order to avoid the emergence of nuclear arm, some of those steps being elimination of short range missiles, security for all weapons, control of nuclear fuel, and increased warning time to prevent accidental launch of a nuclear weapon. Jimmy Carter believes that it is very important to adopt this goal as our own and support the elimination of nuclear weapons in the world
He said that no one can control their freedom to help Cuba. This is for the confirmation of putting nuclear weapons into Cuba. Instead of answering America’s question that Cuba is the USSR nuclear bases. They just said it was for defending Cuba. And also to make the situation better which USA had big nuclear bases and land on West Germany and Turkey.
Therefore, there wall was the only solution and when that wall went up Kennedy believed that we had no right to control what happens on the other side of that wall because that was not out country. Kennedy did an outstanding thing with all that he actually defused the tensions of a nuclear war occurring. He solved one of the greatest threats the United States has almost had to
His responsibility was to ensure the security of the United States of America. It was clear that allowing the USSR to establish a first strike capability in a short period of time would only lead to them taking advantage of the situation and attack the United States. An attack was NOT in the best interests of America’s security interests. Therefore, he did his job. Although instead of taking the military’s advice, and launching an invasion, Kennedy does deserve credit for the innovative approach of the blockade.