I will be talking about President Reagan’s Doctrine and some of what happened during his administration. President Reagan was our 40th President (Jan.1981-Jan.1989). During his time in office, the United States used their diplomatic resources to stop Soviet expansionism in the developing world. President Reagan wanted to overthrow pro-Soviet regimes, so his administration focused on supporting proxy armies to stop the Soviet influence (Roskin, 1999, p. 58). One of President Reagan’s biggest achievements was the end of the Cold War.
SDI – anti ballistic missiles. | In order for the USSR to keep pace with them they would face bankruptcy. American military supremacy – allow the USA to gain more meaningful concessions. | It would require vast sums of money and resources.Soviets could respond. | The Reagan Doctrine | The policy of spending assistance to anti-Communist insurgents and governments.
Though this treat he was able to have his way at the Yalta conference. Truman thought of America as the World’s atomic power and was assured by Cabinet advisers; America would reign supreme in the arms race. However Joseph Stalin was also attempting to build Russia’s power in this arms race too. Truman began to get tough on Russia in 1946 when there were strong protests in the Iran against Russian Troops. The Soviets had denied sharing control of the Turkish Straits as they had claimed they would not have.
Instead of the Détente, Reagan wished for a peace built by America’s economic and military power. Ronald Reagan’s policies were based on the ideologies of spreading freedom and democracy around the world to block the advancement on Soviet Communism. He promoted democracy and all its qualities to countries throughout the world including the Soviet Union. His peaceful policies significantly contributed to the end of the cold war. Reagan detested the oppression of Marxism-Leninism and in 1982 he gave a speech at the British parliament during which he expressed the hope that it would end up “on the ash heap of history”.
English 12 September 10, 2013 Reagan in the 80’s – Did he help or hurt America? In 1980, troubled by an unstable economy, a hostage crisis overseas, and the end of prior administrations that were not trusted, America elected Ronald Reagan by a landslide margin of victory over Jimmy Carter. At sixty-nine years old, he was the oldest President to be elected. He was born in a small town in Illinois and served two terms as California governor starting in 1966. Reagan's track record proved to be very strong and included welfare cuts, decreasing the number of state employees, and halting radical student protesters.
By the time World War 2 ended, most American officials agreed that the best defense against the soviet threat was a strategy called “containment“. In 1946, in his famous “Long Telegram” the diplomat George Kennan explained this policy: The Soviet Union, he wrote, was a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the U.S. there can be no permanent modus Vivendi (agreement between parties that disagree); as a result, Americas only choice was the „long – term” patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies (History). Albert Einstein said: “so long as there are men there will be wars” (Brainy Quote). After WWII, another war started. Two countries had grown up into global forces.
If the United States cannot respond to a threat near our own borders, why should Europeans or Asians believe that we're seriously concerned about threats to them? If the Soviets can assume that nothing short of an actual attack on the United States will provoke an American response, which ally, which friend will trust us then? (Reagan, 2012). This statement had to do with his concern over the events that were happening in Central America, which during this time had the Pro Soviet Sandinista government running Nicaragua which in had just ridded itself a previous dictatorship in 1979. This was also problematic because in 1981, Sandinista-supported Marxist guerrillas launched an offensive against the government of El Salvador, which was pro-American (Russell, 2010).
In 1946, Winston Churchill drew an Iron Curtain in Europe, a metaphor for the ideological and political divide between the Soviet sphere of influence and Western Europe. In the same year, the USA ended its isolationist policy for a policy of containment. The containment policy was adopted by America to prevent the spread of communism beyond the Iron Curtain. In short, the policy was aimed to contain the expansionist tendencies of the Soviet Union. A focus of the American foreign policy during the Cold War, the containment policy was largely a success.
SALISBURY UNIVERSITY COLD WAR: THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS POSC 210-002 12 APRIL 2011 DANIEL TIMMER The Allied powers victory in World War II was marked by the end of a reign by tyrant Adolf Hitler and the Axis powers. The victory however did not last long because the termination of one evil influence was quickly transformed into a new threat brought on by fear of the spread of communism. The post-World War II strategic interests of the United States, in terms of nation security, was to focus foreign affairs efforts on containment of the Soviet Union and communism throughout what would be termed the Cold War era. On March 12, 1947 the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, addressed the nation by saying “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
How significant was the Marshall Plan in contributing to the outbreak of the Cold War in Europe? The 1947 Marshall Plan was an economic outline put forth by George Marshall and the United States, a large-scale programme to provide aid to Europe and reconstruct flagging economies. It was a bold move that the Soviets rightly saw as infringing on their sphere of influence, and only served to heighten the tensions that had seemingly simmered down. A major turning point in the course of history, the Marshall Plan inflamed relations and crystallized the divide between Democracy and Communism, setting the stage for the ensuing Cold War. The main reason for the Marshall Plan as a turning factor was in its forthrightness.