Transcript bhopal disaster

Reagan Foreign First Term and
International Events
Reagan Foreign Policy Vision
• In his last debate with President Jimmy Carter in
1980, Ronald Reagan asked the American public:
– “Is America as respected throughout the world as it
was? Do you feel that . . . we’re as strong as we were
four years ago?”
– Throughout the campaign, Reagan made clear his
belief that America's international prestige and power
had declined precipitously over, not just the last four
years, but the entire preceding decade.
– Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU6PWT1rVUk
Peace Through Strength
• Reagan dropped the Carter grain embargo
against Moscow. Reagan said he desired to
encourage “meaningful and constructive
dialogue.”
• Peace through military power backing up
negotiations.
• The only way to deal with the Soviet Union
was to destroy it.
Reagan’s View of the U.S.S.R.
• Reagan believed that the
Soviets had taken advantage
of détente, as practiced by
Presidents Nixon, Ford, and
Carter. As an example, Reagan
contended that the SALT II
nuclear treaty, negotiated by
Carter but never ratified by
the Senate, imposed greater
limits on the United States
than on the Soviet Union.
• Reagan was convinced that the Soviets were
weaker economically than the intelligence
community believed.
• As early as June 18, 1980, Reagan told
reporters and editors at The Washington Post,
that "it would be of great benefit to the
United States if we started a buildup" because
the Soviets would be unable to compete and
would come to the bargaining table.
Confronting the Soviets
• He backed away from the language of détente
that stressed superpower cooperation and
made clear his distrust of the Soviet system
and Marxist ideology.
Beginnings of the START Treaty
• Reagan restarted arms talks with the Soviets
in 1982, declaring that his goal was not to
limit the arms race—as the Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks of the 1970s had sought—but
to reduce the superpowers' stockpiles of
nuclear weapons.
Expansion of Missiles in NATO Nations
• In 1981, in the face of opposition from the
Soviets and the anti-nuclear movement,
Reagan agreed with European allies to deploy
U.S. nuclear missiles in Germany, Britain, and
Italy.
Reagan Evil Empire Speech
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do0xEgc6oA
Reagan’s View on M.A.D. and Nuclear
Weapons
• Reagan believed that it was immoral to destroy the
civilian population of another country in a retaliatory
attack.
• He also worried that the two sides might blunder into
nuclear war—in fact, that almost happened on
September 26, 1983, when a defective Soviet satellite
system mistakenly reported a supposed U.S. missile
attack.
• Reagan's vision, not well understood when he took
office and sometimes misrepresented even today, was
of a world free of nuclear weapons and the terror they
posed to all mankind.
Foreign News and Events:
President Reagan First Term
Royal Wedding
• July 29, 1981.
• Charles, Prince of Wales,
and Lady Diana Spencer
• St Paul's Cathedral,
London, England.
• It was watched by an
estimated global TV
audience of 750 million.
– Approximately 16% of
the world’s population.
Royal Wedding
• The United Kingdom had a national holiday on
that day to mark the wedding.
• They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.
U.S. Embassy Bombing in Beirut
• April 18, 1983.
• Killed 63 people, mostly
embassy and CIA staff
members, several soldiers
and one Marine. 17 of the
dead were Americans.
• It was the deadliest attack
on a U.S. diplomatic mission
up to that time, and is
thought of as marking the
beginning of anti-U.S.
attacks by Islamist groups.
• The attack came in the wake of the
intervention of a Multinational Force, made
up of Western countries, including the U.S., in
the Lebanese Civil War, to try to restore order
and central government authority.
• Following the bombing and the realization
that insurgents could deliver weapons of
enormous yield with an ordinary truck or van,
the presence of protective barriers (bollards)
became common around critical government
facilities in the United States and elsewhere
• A pro-Iranian group calling itself the Islamic
Jihad Organization took responsibility for the
bombing in a telephone call to a news office
immediately after the blast. The anonymous
caller said,
– "This is part of the Iranian revolution's campaign
against imperialist targets throughout the world.
We shall keep striking at any crusader presence in
Lebanon, including the international forces."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1
hnevAhSowY
Bhopal Disaster, India
• December 2-3, 1984.
• A gas leak incident in
India, considered the
world's worst industrial
disaster.
• The toxic substance
made its way into and
around the shanty towns
located near the plant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U
H5LPwdVnqI
• The government of Madhya Pradesh
confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to
the gas release.
• A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the
leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478
temporary partial injuries and approximately
3,900 severely and permanently disabling
injuries.
• Others estimate that 8,000 died within two
weeks, and another 8,000 or more have since
died from gas-related diseases.
Indira Gandhi Assassination
• October 31, 1984.
• She was killed by two of her
bodyguards, in the aftermath
of Operation Blue Star, the
Indian Army's June 1984
assault on the Golden Temple
in Amritsar which left the Sikh
temple heavily damaged.
• Over the next four days,
thousands of Sikhs were killed
in retaliatory violence.
Operation Blue Star
• June 3-6, 1984.
• Intended to put a stop to the Dharam Yudh
Morcha, a separation movement.
• Fierce fighting ensued between Sikhs and the
army, with heavy casualties on both sides. The
Harmandir Sahib complex also suffered much
damage during the attack.