President Reagan on a Mission: How the Aggressive Nature of the
Reagan Administration aided the Cease of Soviet Communism
On November 21, 1985 President Ronald Reagan became one of nine presidents that traveled to the Soviet Union and met with their leader. Each of the additional eight presidents traveled to the Soviet Union with hopes of a peaceful and lasting relationship. During their visits only President Nixon was able to make any significant progress, but by the time Reagan took the oval office in 1981, the two countries were once again in shambles and were deteriorating the relations. President Reagan's policy of military and economic aid to anti-communist countries and insurgents was a significant change to U.S. foreign policy. This was Reagan’s concept of how to force out communists’ parties that had been installed by the former Soviet Union. Since World War I the United States aspiration of freedom from communism and European values has been fought off using isolation and containment from the U.S.S.R. and communist governments. Though the United States is a relatively young country, this has been one of the major factors weighing the balance of a superpower in the world, during peacetime and in time of war. Throughout history presidents such as Truman, Kennedy and Carter experienced a strengthening Soviet Union with intentions of spreading communism throughout third world countries and a threat of nuclear war. The Cuban missile crisis and the invasion of Afghanistan were prime examples of how our government was forced into taking a more aggressive posture in dealing with the Soviets and their spread of communism.
With the security interests of the United States now at risk, it became necessary to take a more aggressive approach at eliminating communism. Containment of the Soviet Union’s spread of communism through economic aid and direct military involvement in third world countries threatened by communism was the only plausible option, and forecast the dawn of the Cold War. The threat of nuclear war escalated, reaching its climax with the Cuban missile crisis. The Soviet Union’s nuclear capabilities were now passing that of the United States’, SALT II was a failure not making it through congress, and the domino effect assured the collapse of democracies around the world. Soon after Ronald Reagan was elected to office, his political stance and personal opinions towards the U.S.S.R. were quickly expressed without evasiveness. He was against the already in place containment policy from the beginning and was disinclined to bargain with the Soviet leaders on the basis of distrust. Unlike previous presidents Reagan viewed the Cold War as still winnable. The proclaimed “Reagan Doctrine” had limited success throughout his presidency, although when used against Afghanistan it was successful. This doctrine came to embrace active support for the anti-communist “freedom fighters” in Afghanistan, the rebel “contras” in Nicaragua, and some of the anti-Vietnamese insurgencies in Cambodia. This sent a stern warning to the Soviet Union stating a willingness to back the hard-lined rhetoric with political and military action. During Jimmy Carter’s his first years in office his policy towards El Salvador and the rise of Nicaraguan Sandinistas was one of encouraging gradual democratization. Though this was later deemed a failure in the eyes of the United States, Ronald Reagan delivered massive amounts of military aid to help create the Contras, an anti-Sandinista guerrilla front, and built up the Honduran army as a firewall against the further spread of revolution in the region.
Even after numerous successes and failures, Reagan continued to hold behind the policy of military and economic pressure was the only possible alternative. Reagan made several allegories concerning the situation between the United States and the Soviet Union. One stood out when he described the confrontation as “two westerners standing in a saloon aiming their guns at each others heads permanently.” This in his eyes would just not satisfy his goals of riding the world of communism and the nuclear threat. About this time an enormous amount of budgeting was approved for modernizing the U.S. military and its equipment. His defence budget rose almost seven percent from 1981 to 1985 stating that the increase in budget was necessary in correcting years of neglect in strengthening the military. This build up in strength and modernization enabled Ronald Reagan bargain with the communist country from a higher level of power. While pushing the military spending to all new heights, the U.S. budgets reached levels to that of the Korean War. This doctrine was based on the direct military, economic and political pressure against the Soviets and third world communists governments, would strain their military and economic system to the point where they were unable to compete in the arms race. On several occasions, Gorbachev’s advisor was quoted saying, “ you are trying to destroy our economy, to interfere with our trade, and make us inferior in the strategic field.”
Reagan could claim that he succeeded in bringing about a considerable change in U.S. foreign policy. He entered his presidency thinking that previous presidents had disregarded the nation's armed forces and its quality, and had been too passive in the battle against Soviet expansionism of communism. The communist regimes throughout the third world were to be weakened and overthrown by providing military and economic assistance to insurgents sympathetic to the United States. The Reagan administration thus played an active part in countering Soviet influence in Afghanistan. Reagan laid the foundation of the newly constructed START, and was later signed in 1989 by President Bush. His early era marked the beginning of the final episode for the former Soviet Union. Although there were no early signals that indicated the fall, the stress level of the U.S.S.R. brought levels of illness to an already caving body. Build-ups of highly effective and advanced weapons systems, including the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), suddenly pushed Moscow to the brink of failure and continued to stretch the budget for the Soviets. Two years later, the Cold War was officially over. Some historians and politicians may argue that President Reagan was not the cause of the decrease of nuclear war and communism. His aggressiveness and persistence in assuring that the United States was unmatched in power was a significant aid and may have been the deciding factor in the end of the cold war and the spreading of communism. The power or the “Reagan Doctrine” and his administration blow in the arms race proved to be a powerful blow to the weakened and collapsing Soviet Union.
In Memory of a Great Hero and President: 1911-2004
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