Peng
Robert McFarlane and the fall of the Soviet Regime
Robert “Bud” Carl McFarlane graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1959 (Timburg 213) and served in the Marine Corps throughout the 60s and 70s. He had participated in the White House Fellows program and eventually became involved in the White House legislative office. He quitted his Marine Corps career and entered politics after gaining expertise in foreign policy, which was not needed or useful in advancing his military career. (Timburg 253) After Ronald Reagan was elected president in the 1980s, his political profession took off, as Reagan chose close advisors who matched his conservative political views. McFarlane, having served in the military for 20 years and fought in Vietnam, he would logically be anti-Communist due to his background. Robert McFarlane’s expertise in foreign affairs and his anti-Soviet passion allowed America to take a more aggressive military and political stance against Communism during the 1980s.
McFarlane initially played several more minor roles under Reagan’s administration and started implementing his political ideas. He started his political career under Reagan as Counselor to the Department of State, which assisted then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig in foreign affairs. As Reagan’s foreign policy had been following Carter’s for the first year, people such as McFarlane and Haig wished to change that status quo. However, McFarlane initially could not obtain a comprehensive foreign policy toward Soviet-friendly Nicaragua in this time period because Haig was not interested in doing more, and he claims that if they had done things differently, they would have avoided problems in the future. (McFarlane 175) Haig, on the other hand, wanted to invade Cuba, which was against McFarlane’s ideas since he did not believe it was a priority. (McFarlane 178) This showed the lack of coherence and efficiency within the cabinet, and was eventually changed, with McFarlane appointed Deputy of National Security Advisor by Clark, the National Security Advisor. (McFarlane 189) “The first year had been one of drift, of reacting to events.” (McFarlane 193) After he moved his office into the White House, McFarlane eventually contributed to forming tactics that put pressure on the soviets politically, economically, and socially. “I seized the moment. ‘But you do have a foreign policy, Mr. President,’ I spoke up. The attention in the room shifted to me in a solid wave…. ‘It has five components,’ I began. ‘The first is to strengthen our economic base…essential to underwriting our foreign aid program and to restore the defense foundation of your policy…Number two is to restore our defenses so as to deter attack, …Number three is to restore the strength of alliances…Number four is to advance the peace process in the Middle East by mediating between Israel and her Arab neighbors…Number five is to foster accelerated growth in developing countries…” (McFarlane 193-194) Some of these ideas later became essential as the White House shifted from being reactive to changes in the world to proactive of executing stress on communism. The Crisis Pre-Planning Group, or CPPG, served to anticipate the consequences of a crisis (McFarlane 195) America’s economy and public confidence would be more stable if reports are conducted. For Reagan, this could also be used to reduce the bluffs that the enemies might conduct, and comprehensive measures for the cabinet could be used. McFarlane’s quote also shows that during this time period, foreign and military policies could not be differentiated from one another. Besides this, McFarlane later became more famous for his role in the Strategic Defense Initiative.
