American foreign policy during the presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) focused heavily on the Cold War which shifted from détente to confrontation. The Reagan administration pursued a policy of rollback with regard to communist regimes. The Reagan Doctrine operationalized these goals as the United States offered financial, logistical, training, and military equipment to anti-communist opposition in Afghanistan, Angola, and Nicaragua. He expanded support to anti-communist movements in Central and Eastern Europe.
By 1982, the Reagan-led CIA had in fact regarded Libya, the Soviet Union, and Cuba to be "some sort of unholy trinity," with controversial Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi being "our international public enemy number one."
Reagan's foreign policy also saw major shifts with regard to the Middle East. US intervention in the Lebanese Civil War was halted as Reagan ordered an evacuation of troops following the 1983 Marine Corps Barracks Attack. The 1979 Iran hostage crisis in Tehran strained relations with Iran and during the Iran-Iraq War, the administration publicly supported Iraq and sold weapons to Saddam Hussein.
Anti-communism was at the forefront with Reagan's Latin American foreign policy and the US supported forces fighting communist insurgencies or governments. As his administration progressed, opposition to continued US aid for these groups began to gather steam in Congress. Eventually, Congress forbade any US financial or material aid to certain anti-communist groups, among them the Contras in Nicaragua. In response, the Reagan administration facilitated covert arms sales to Iran and used the proceeds to fund Latin American anti-communists. The fallout from the Iran-Contra affair dominated Reagan's second term in office.
His policies are credited to have helped weaken the Soviet Union and its control over Warsaw Pact countries, although scholars have pushed back against giving Reagan the lion's share of the credit. Western confrontation combined with the Soviet Union's mishandling of domestic affairs led to its weakening and ultimate dissolution. In 1989, after Reagan left office, the Revolutions of 1989 saw Eastern European countries overthrow their communist regimes. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991 the United States emerged as the world's sole superpower and Reagan's successor George H.W. Bush sought to improve relations with former communist regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe.John Prados, How the Cold War Ended: Debating and Doing History (Potomac Books, 2011).
Appointments
Reagan administration foreign policy personnelVice President Bush(1981–1989)Secretary of State Haig(1981–1982) Shultz(1982–1989)Secretary of Defense Weinberger(1981–1987) Carlucci(1987–1989)Ambassador to the United Nations Kirkpatrick(1981–1985) Walters(1985–1989)Director of Central Intelligence Casey(1981–1987) William H. Webster(1987–1989) Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Allen(1981–1982) Clark(1982–1983) McFarlane(1983–1985) Poindexter(1985–1986) Carlucci(1986–1987) Powell(1987–1989)Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Nance(1981–1982) McFarlane(1982–1983) Poindexter(1983–1985) Fortier(1985–1986) Rodman(1986) Powell(1986–1987) Negroponte(1987–1989) Trade Representative Brock(1981–1985) Yeutter(1985–1989)
Eastern Europe and the USSR
Reagan had close friendships with key political leaders across the globe, especially the two strong conservatives Margaret Thatcher in Britain, and Brian Mulroney in Canada. He and Thatcher provided mutual support in terms of fighting liberalism, reducing the welfare state, and confronting the Soviet Union in what turned out to be the final years of the Cold War.James Cooper, "From Reykjavik to Fulton: Reagan, Thatcher, and the ending of the Cold War." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 14.4 (2016): 383-400. online.
Reagan ultimately departed from the historical policy of détente with the Soviet Union, which had been followed after World War II by consecutive U.S. presidents, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. The Reagan administration implemented a new policy towards the Soviet Union, detailed in NSDD-32, a National Security Decisions Directive, to begin confronting the Soviet Union on three fronts: decreasing Soviet access to high technology and diminishing their resources, including depressing the value of Soviet commodities on the world market; to (also) increase American defense expenditures to strengthen the U.S. negotiating position; and to force the Soviets to devote more of their economic resources to defense. The massive American military build-up was the most visible.
Reagan supported anti-communist groups around the world. In a policy known as the "Reagan Doctrine", his administration promised aid and counterinsurgency assistance to right-wing repressive regimes, such as the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, the South African apartheid government, and the Hissène Habré dictatorship in Chad, as well as to guerrilla movements opposing governments linked to the Soviet Union, such as the Contras in Nicaragua, the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and the UNITA in Angola.Victor Bondi, ed., "Government and Politics: The Cold War: Third World Woes", American Decades: 1980-1989 (Detroit, Mi: Gage Research, 1996), 267. During the Soviet–Afghan War, Reagan deployed the CIA's Special Activities Division (SAD) Paramilitary Officers to train, equip, and lead the Mujahideen forces against the Soviet Army.Crile, George (2003). Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. Atlantic Monthly Press, page 330 and 348"Sorry Charlie this is Michael Vickers's War", The Washington Post, December 27, 2007 Although the CIA (in general) and U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson from Texas have received most of the attention, the key architect of this strategy was Michael G. Vickers, a young Paramilitary Officer.Crile, George (2003). Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. Atlantic Monthly Press, page 246, 285 and 302 President Reagan's Covert Action program has been given credit for assisting in ending the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Paperback) by Peter Schweizer, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994 page 213 When the Polish government suppressed the Solidarity movement in late 1981, Reagan imposed economic sanctions on the People's Republic of Poland.
In its national security policies, the administration Reagan administration revived the B-1 bomber program in 1981 that had been canceled by the Carter administration, continued secret development of the B-2 Spirit that Carter intended to replace the B-1, and began production of the MX "Peacekeeper" missile. In response to Soviet deployment of the RSD-10 Pioneer and in accordance with NATO's double-track decision, the administration deployed Pershing II missiles in West Germany to gain a stronger bargaining position to eventually eliminate that entire class of nuclear weapons. His position was that if the Soviets did not remove the RSD-10 missiles (without a concession from the US), America would simply introduce the Pershing II missiles for a stronger bargaining position, and both missiles would be eliminated.
One of Reagan's proposals was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). He believed this defense shield could make nuclear war impossible, but the unlikelihood that the technology could ever work led opponents to dub SDI "Star Wars". Critics of the SDI believed that the technological objective was unattainable, that the attempt would likely accelerate the arms race, and that the extraordinary expenditures amounted to a military-industrial boondoggle. Supporters responded that the SDI gave the President a stronger bargaining position. Indeed, Soviet leaders became genuinely concerned.Lawrence T. Caldwell, and Robert Legvold. "Reagan through Soviet eyes." Foreign Policy 52 (1983): 3-21.
Reagan believed that the American economy was on the move again while the Soviet economy had become stagnant. For a while, the Soviet decline was masked by high prices for Soviet oil exports, but that crutch collapsed in the early-1980s. In November 1985, the oil price was $30/barrel for crude, and in March 1986, it had fallen to only $12.Glenn E. Schweitzer, 1989 Techno-Diplomacy: U.S.-Soviet Confrontations in Science and Technology (1989) 63ff, 81.
Reagan's militant rhetoric inspired dissidents in the Soviet Empire, but also startled allies and alarmed critics. In a famous address to the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983, he called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" that would be consigned to the "ash heap of history". After Soviet fighters downed Korean Airlines Flight 007 on September 1, 1983, he labeled the act an "act of barbarism ... [of] inhuman brutality". Reagan's description of the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" drew the wrath of some as provocative, but his description was staunchly defended by his conservative supporters. Michael Johns of The Heritage Foundation prominently defended Reagan in a Policy Review article, "Seventy Years of Evil", in which he identified 208 alleged acts of evil by the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
On March 3, 1983, Reagan predicted that communism would collapse: "I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose—last pages even now are being written", he said. He elaborated on June 8, 1982, to the British Parliament. Reagan argued that the Soviet Union was in deep economic crisis and stated that the Soviet Union "runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens."
This was before Gorbachev rose to power in 1985. Reagan later wrote in his autobiography An American Life that he "did not see the profound changes that would occur in the Soviet Union after Gorbachev rose to power." To confront the Soviet Union's serious economic problems, Gorbachev implemented bold new policies for economic liberalisation and openness called glasnost and perestroika.
End of Cold War
Reagan relaxed his aggressive rhetoric toward the Soviet Union after Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Politburo in 1985, and took on a position of negotiating. In turn, the Soviets reversed their hostile view of Reagan and began negotiating in earnest.William D. Jackson, "Soviet Reassessment of Ronald Reagan, 1985-1988." Political Science Quarterly 113.4 (1998): 617-644. The Soviet Union was in deep economic trouble, and could no longer afford an increasingly expensive Cold War. The military consumed as much as 25% of the Soviet Union's gross national product at the expense of consumer goods and investment in civilian sectors.(LaFeber 2002, 332) But the size of the Soviet Armed Forces was not necessarily the result of a simple action-reaction arms race with the United States.(Odom) Instead, Soviet spending on the arms race and other Cold War commitments can be understood as both a cause and effect of the deep-seated structural problems in the Soviet system, which accumulated at least a decade of economic stagnation during the Brezhnev years.(see Economy of the Soviet Union) Soviet investment in the defense sector was not necessarily driven by military necessity, but in large part by the interests of massive party and state bureaucracies dependent on the sector for their own power and privileges.(LaFeber 2002, 335)