Ronald

REAGAN: Foreign Policy

1981-1989

SOVIET UNION• To Reagan, “the focus of evil in the

modern world” was the Soviet Union • relations between the United States

and the Soviet Union marked by American efforts to link armament reduction with Soviet behavior on other issues

Who was the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985 who initiated reforms?

Mikhail Gorbachev

1987: INF Treaty• Negotiations between the Reagan

administration and the Gorbachev regime resulted in the elimination of American and Soviet intermediate-range nuclear forces from Europe

• Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

• Eliminated two classes of weapons systems in Europe and allowed each nation to make on-site inspections of other’s military installations

SOVIET UNION • In the late 1980s and early 1990s (Reagan’s

second term as president) • The issue that dominated was foreign policy • the dominant factor in foreign affairs was the

ending of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union

• The new “glasnost” and “perestroika” policies in the Soviet Union introduced the right to oppose government policy and moved the country toward economic reform

• For the Soviet Union’s new policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) to work, it was essential that the Cold War end

Two reforms initiated by Gorbachev

Glasnost – “openness” allowed open criticism of the Soviet Union and steps toward freedom of the press

Perestroika – restructuring of Soviet society ; less government control of the economy , introduction of private enterprise and steps toward establishing a democratic government in the Soviet Union

1988 Collapse of Communist Regimes

• In the late 1980s, the communist countries of Eastern Europe began to change and they either overthrew communist government or transformed them into non-Communist or anti – Communist regimes

• Gorbachev reduced the number of Soviet Troops in Eastern Europe

• Allowed non-Communist parties to organize in satellite nations and encouraged them to move toward democracy

The Reagan Doctrine• of American activism in the Third

World was most particularly exercised in GRENADA and NICARAGUA

• During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, United States troops invaded Grenada

MIDDLE EAST• ISRAEL badly strained its bonds of

friendship with the United States by allowing new settlements to be established in the occupied territory of the West Bank

• In 1983 President Reagan sent United States marines to LEBANON as part of an international peacekeeping force ; many of them died in a terrorist attack.

IRAN-CONTRA SCANDAL• The scandal seriously damaged the

Reagan administration’s reputation when it revealed that the U.S. used the money from the sale of arms to Iran to aid the contras in Nicaragua

• The Iran-contra investigations revealed Ronald Reagan as a president who napped through cabinet meetings (pages 985-986)

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What was the name of the defense system that Reagan asked the country’s scientists to develop in 1983 that would keep Americans safe from enemy missiles?

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or Star Wars

George Herbert

Bush: Foreign Policy

1989-1993

1989 – Fall of the Berlin Wall• East Germans

• Rejected their Communist government • Opened the Berlin Wall

• 1990 – EAST GERMANY held its first free elections and reunited with West Germany

---------------------------------------------------• “Solidarity” was a massive working–

class labor union of dissidents in POLAND

1991: Soviet Union is dissolved• A 1991 attempted coup by Communists in

the Soviet Union led to : • the collapse of the coup • the outlawing of the Communist party• the breakup of the Soviet Union

• Separates into 15 separate countries• one consequence = ethnic hatreds flared in the

former Soviet republics

• In response to the collapse of the Soviet Union, President George Bush called for a “new world order” where democracy would reign supreme and diplomacy would replace weaponry

RUSSIA • Boris Yeltsin - Leader of Russia after

the Soviet Union was dissolved (1991-2000)

• Vladimir Putin : Current leader of Russia

CHINA 1989: Tiananmen Square• University students in Communist China

led large pro-democracy demonstrations• China’s government brutally slaughtered

unarmed student protestors • The demonstration in Beijing on June 3,

1989, resulted in the democratic movement being crushed and a renewed period of repression

• In response to China’s crushing of its pro-democracy movement, the United States under George Bush maintained normal relations with China

PANAMA• The result of President Bush’s

decision to send American troops to Panama in 1989 was the overthrow of the unpopular military leader, Manuel Noriega

IRAQ : Gulf War• The United States joined its allies in the

Persian Gulf War in order to roll back Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait (OPERATION DESERT STORM)• produced remarkably few allied and American

casualties• was sanctioned by the United States Congress

and the United Nations• featured the largest use ever of highly

sophisticated military technology

• The result of the Persian Gulf War was that Kuwait was liberated but Saddam Hussein stayed in power

William

CLINTON: Foreign Policy

1993-2001

• The Clinton foreign policy in Africa, the Balkans, and China was marked by great caution and a reluctance to engage American diplomatic or military power

Central America and Caribbean Policy during the Cold War

U.S. opposed left-leaning and socialist governments in favor of governments friendly to the United States

Nicaragua• US helped dictator Anastasio Somoza come

to power whose family continued to rule the country for 42 years

• Sandinistas – rebels attempting to overthrow the Somoza regime

• 1979 : Sandinistas won the Civil War; Carter recognized the new Sandinista regime

• 1981 – Reagan supported the Contras (rebels) against the Sandinista regime

• 1983- The Boland Amendment banned US military aid to the Contras

• 1990 –Elections gave Nicaragua a Contra leader