His new program system people liked to call Reaganomics; he would reduce taxes to for the spur economic growth, using the money supply to help reduce the effects of inflation. He started deregulation the economy and a lot of the government spending. As president from 1981 to 1985 he was able to survive an assassination attempt. He took a firm stance at labor unions and he ordered the invasion of Grenada. When re-elections came up again in 1984, he obliterated any chance of anyone else to win in a landslide vote.
True, Reagan did increase the size of the military, spent billions on national defense, and fought Communists in Latin America. Yet, more cordial relations with the USSR, arms reductions, and a shift away from anti-Soviet policies characterized Reagan's second term in office. There’s no question that former president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy ended Communism in Europe. I have come to this conclusion after watching both his “Evil Empire” Speech and his “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall” Speech.
The roots can be found in the stagnation of the Soviet system in the late 1970s and early 1980s and perhaps most importantly in the ascension of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who opened the floodgates of change.Yet the ending might not have happened but for outside pressures, and this is where Reagan's legacy lies.The United States, in the years before and during the Reagan presidency, underwent a revolution in high technology that the Soviets could not match. The Soviet system was under pressure from Reagan's defense buildup and deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe, the CIA-backed mujaheddin fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan and Reagan's proposed missile defense system, the Strategic Defence Initiative. Reagan also challenged Soviet regional power in several conflicts from Nicaragua to Angola and lent support to the Polish dissident movement. These final battles of the Cold War shaped Reagan's foreign policy, including his determination to support rebels fighting Nicaragua's ruling Sandinistas, a Marxist group, in the 1980s. In Reagan's second term, it was disclosed that he had bypassed congressional restrictions on aiding the rebels, known as the contras, in part by diverting $3.8 million from the secret sale of 2,000 antitank missiles
Recount the events of spring 1989 that led to the crackdown on the students' movements: explore the demands and aspirations of the students and the Chinese society at large, and the way the Chinese government reacted. The students called for government accountability, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the restoration of workers' control over industry, better treatment for intellectuals, including more money for education, better salaries and job assignments after graduation. Also, the students protested because of the dissatisfaction with the Communist government. Rampant inflation caused by excessive expansion in consumption, investment, and the money supply caused the prices of raw materials, fuel, transportation and public services to skyrocket. Also, increased corruption and nepotism, as well as strict regulations on newspapers and other publications particularly angered the students.
The local forces attacked the Presidential Palace, the National Radio Station, the U.S. embassy and other principal targets. When the Communist’s high command realized that the military objectives were not being met, they halted further attacks. Sporadic fighting continued in Saigon until March 8. Some sections of the city were left badly damaged by the combat and U.S. retaliatory air and artillery strikes. The Chinese district of Cholon suffered with hundreds of civilians killed in the American counter attacks.” (First Battle) “On March 16, 1968, U.S. Army forces conducted a mass murder of hundreds of unarmed citizens in South Vietnam.
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.
Moreover, two decades after the Berlin Wall fell, the spread of democracy has stalled. Between 1988 and 1990, as the Cold War was winding down, prodemocracy protests erupted far from Eastern Europe, overturning dictatorships in countries as different as Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Chile. After the Soviet disintegration, even Russia emerged as a credible candidate for democratic reform. It helped transform global geopolitics by triggering the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But it also set in motion events that significantly raised Asia’s profile in international relations.
While the protest lacked an identical cause or leadership, most of the protesters were generally against the economic policies and authoritarian of the ruling of the Chinese Communist Party and expressing calls for democratic reforms in the structure of government. The PRC government then used betrayal as an excuse and in Beijing, and used military force to suppress the demonstrators. The resulting military crack down caused a number of innocent citizens dead or injured. The report on number of deaths and injured ranged from two hundred – three hundred (PRC government) to two thousand – three thousand (Chinese Red Cross). Following the violence, the government carried out mass arrests of demonstrators and suppressed their supporters and other protests around China.
For example, students at Peking University created a "Democratic Wall" on which they criticized the CCP with posters “They protested CCP control over intellectuals, the harshness of previous mass campaigns such as that against counterrevolutionaries, the slavish following of Soviet models, the low standards of living in China, the proscription of foreign literature, economic corruption among party cadres, and the fact that 'Party members [enjoyed] many privileges which make them a race apart' During the period from June 1 to July 17, 1957, millions of letters poured in to the Premier's Office and other authorities, and the situation began to get out of control. In Mao's opinion, many of these letters violated the boundaries
The Gang of Four, together with disgraced Communist general Lin Biao, were labeled the two major "counter-revolutionary forces" of the Cultural Revolution and officially blamed by the Chinese government for the worst excesses of the societal chaos that ensued during the ten years of turmoil. ------------------------------------------------- Formation The group was led by Jiang Qing, and consisted of three of her close associates, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen. Two other men who were already dead in 1976, Kang Sheng and Xie Fuzhi, were named as having been part of the "Gang". Chen Boda and Mao Yuanxin, the latter being Mao's nephew, were also considered some of the Gang's closer associates. Most Western accounts consider that the actual leadership of the Cultural Revolution consisted of a wider group, referring predominantly to the members of the Central Cultural Revolution Group.