Transcript Lesson 32-2: Reagan`s Foreign Policy

Reagan’s Foreign Policy
32-2
The Main Idea
President Reagan took a hard line against communism
around the world.
Reading Focus
• How did President Reagan help to bring about the end of the
Cold War?
• What foreign trouble spots persisted during Reagan’s
presidency?
• How did the Iran-Contra Affair undermine the president?
Bell Ringer
• Can simple words knock down a
cement wall?
President Reagan and the Cold War
• In his first term, Reagan rejected the policies of
containment and détente; he wanted to destroy
communism.
– Position worsened relations with the Soviets
– Forged bonds with like-minded leaders, including Margaret
Thatcher and Pope John Paul II
– Critics of his policy called Reagan reckless
• Reagan obtained massive increases in military spending.
– Much of the new spending went to nuclear weapons.
– Promoted the Strategic Defense initiative (SDI)—a shield
in space to protect the United States against incoming Soviet
missiles.
• Critics called this Star Wars and said it wouldn’t work.
A Thaw in the Cold War
The Soviet Union
• By the late 1970s the Soviet
economy was shrinking.
• Industrial and farm
production, population
growth, education, and
medical care all fell.
• The Soviet Union started
importing food
• Strikes in Poland led by Lech
Walesa highlighted Soviet
weaknesses.
• Walesa successfully forced
the Soviet-backed
government to legalize
independent trade unions.
• He also led a new
independent union called
Solidarity.
U.S.-Soviet Relations
• A visionary leader came to
power in the Soviet Union—
Mikhail Gorbachev.
• Believed the only way to save
the Soviet Union was to strike
a deal with the United States
• Between 1985 and 1988
Reagan and Gorbachev met
four times and produced the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces (INF) Treaty.
• First treaty to actually reduce
nuclear arms
• INF Treaty destroyed a
whole class of weapons (more
than 2,500 missiles).
What foreign trouble spots persisted during
Reagan’s presidency?
• Latin America—the United States supported several antiCommunist governments and rebel groups in the region
• Lebanon—the United States was part of an international
peacekeeping force that tried to halt the country’s civil
war
• Grenada—Reagan sent 5,000 marines to invade the island
in order to stop a violent Communist coup
• South Africa—Congress overrode a Reagan veto and
passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act to help end
apartheid in the country
Upheaval in Latin America
• Violent civil war between Marxist guerrillas and
government troops supported by armed extremist
groups
El Salvador • Reagan administration supported José Napoleón
Duarte—a moderate leader who won the 1984
election.
• U.S-backed Anastasio Somoza Debayle was ousted
by the Sandinistas—a Marxist group.
• Reagan cut off aid to Nicaragua saying that the
Sandinistas were backed by the USSR.
Nicaragua
• Reagan then allowed the CIA to equip and train a
Sandinista opposition group called the Contras.
• Congress cut off funds to the Contras and banned
all further direct or indirect U.S. support of them.
Trouble Spots Abroad
Lebanon
Grenada
South Africa
• Muslim and
Christian groups
waged a civil war.
• 1983 Communist
coup stranded 800
U.S. students.
• Israel invaded
Lebanon to expel
the PLO.
• Cuba’s role and
students’ safety
concerned
Reagan.
• Apartheid enforced
legalized racial
segregation.
• U.S. sent 800
peacekeepers.
• A suicide bomber
killed 241
marines.
• Reagan withdrew
the troops.
• Reagan sent in
soldiers who took
the island in two
days with a loss of
19 soldiers.
• Reagan’s policy was
one of “constructive
engagement” with
the white minority
government.
• Congress overrode
his veto and
imposed trade limits
and other sanctions.
The Iran-Contra Affair
• Despite the Congressional ban on U.S. funds for
the Contras war, Reagan’s national security staff
sought to continue the funding.
• In 1985 National Security Advisor Robert
McFarlane persuaded Reagan to sell arms to Iran
in hopes that Iran would help obtain the release
of U.S. hostages in Lebanon.
– This violated a U.S. arms embargo.
• Members of the National Security Council staff
then secretly diverted the money from the sale of
arms to Iran to the Contras in Nicaragua.
The Iran-Contra Affair
• Vice Admiral John Poindexter and Lieutenant Colonel
Oliver North carried out the plan to divert arms sale
money to the Contras.
• When the Iran-Contra affair came to light, Congress
wanted to know if anyone higher up was involved.
• Reagan admitted authorizing the sale of arms to Iran but
denied knowing that the money was then diverted to the
Contras.
• Full details of the affair are not known because the
administration engaged in a cover-up of their actions.
– North admitted destroying key documents.
– High-level Reagan staff members lied in testimony to
Congress and withheld evidence.
– North was convicted of destroying documents and perjury.
His conviction was overturned on technicalities.
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