REAGAN REVOLUTION

1980-1988

1. What country was the focus of the Iran-Contra scandal (other than Iran)?

2. Where were the Marine Barracks bombed during Reagan’s administration?

3. What Marine colonel was at the heart of the Iran-Contra hearings?

4. Who was the Soviet Premier Reagan met with in Iceland?

5. Perestroika and G_________ were the policies of new openness in the USSR

1. What group did Reagan support in Afghanistan?

2. Where were the Marine Barracks bombed during Reagan’s administration?

3. What Marine colonel was at the heart of the Iran-Contra hearings?

4. Who was the Soviet Premier Reagan met with in Iceland?

5. Glasnost and P_________ were the policies of new openness in the USSR.

CONTEXT: 1980-1988POLITICAL• Increasing “brushfire” conflict in 3rd world• Crisis of Confidence with Carter• Iran Hostage Crisis• Lebanon Marine Barracks Bombings• “Star Wars”ECONOMIC• Continuing double-digit inflation• Energy Woes• “Voodoo Economics”SOCIAL• Increasing anxiety about future• Presidential assassination attempt

ELECTION OF 1980CANDIDATES:• Carter (Democrats)• “ABC” Campaign/Ed Kennedy• Reagan (Republicans)ISSUES:• Iran hostage crisis and Soviet expansionism• Economic woes/inflation• Moral Majority/ConservatismOUTCOME:• Landslide for Reagan, Republicans win Senate• Iran releases hostages after 444 days

http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/elections/maps/1980ec.gif

REAGAN REVOLUTION = Old+New RightAKA Neo-Conservatism

ALLIANCE OF:West and South, Elderly, Fiscal Conservatives, Moral Conservatives

ISSUES: Politics of resentment… that isanti-________ (any and all of below):Abortion, homosexuality, affirmative action, busing, feminism, pornography, big government, welfare, regulation

Reagan posterRonald Reagan, the Republican presidential candidate in 1980, campaigned for "family values," an aggressive anti-Soviet foreign and military policy, and tax cuts. He also exuded optimism and appealed to Americans' patriotism. This poster, issued by the Republican National Committee, included Reagan's favorite campaign slogan, "Let's make America great again." (Collection of David J. and Janice L. Frent)

Reagan poster

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

REAGAN’S DOMESTIC AGENDA• Reduce federal spending ( was at 23% of GNP)• Increase defense budget• Reduce welfare spending• Reduce tax burdens (25% tax cuts)• Capture Southern Conservative Democrats in

Congress• “Supply-side” economics, AKA “Reaganomics”RESULT:• Expansion of the power of the President• DEEP Recession in 1982, Recovery in 1983• Widening income gaps in US for 1st time in20th

century

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REAGAN’S DOMESTIC AGENDA

RESULT:

• Expansion of the power of the President

• DEEP Recession in 1982

• Recovery in 1983 (military expenditures)

• Widening income gaps for 1st time in 20th Cent.

• Languishing middle-class

• HUGE federal deficit ($200 billion +)

• Growing trade deficit

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REAGANOMICS LEGACY

• Supply Side economics DOES NOT produce revenues for govt.

• HUGE deficit created ($2 trillion = more debt than all predecessors combined.)

• Debt constrains the welfare state

• Decline in median household income

• Increasing class division

CULTURE WARS

• Reagan appoints 3 Supreme Court Justices, incl. 1st woman, Sandra Day O’Connor

• Reagan appoints MANY federal judges

• Supreme Court slows affirmative action and limits Roe v. Wade with Casey and Webster decisions.

REAGAN’S COLD WAR

STRATEGY: • Out-spend the Soviets• Campaign of anti-Soviet rhetoric• Expensive Strategic Defense Initiative, AKA

“Star Wars”• Support for “freedom fighters:

– Muhajedin in Afghanistan– Contras in Nicaragua

• Open negotiations from position of strength

Reagan Doctrine, 1985 • The "Reagan Doctrine" was used to characterize the Reagan

administration's (1981-1988) policy of supporting anti-Communist insurgents wherever they might be. In his 1985 State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan called upon Congress and the American people to stand up to the Soviet Union, what he had previously called the "Evil Empire":

• "We must stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth."

• Breaking with the doctrine of "Containment," established during the Truman administration, President Ronald Reagan's foreign policy was based on John Foster Dulles' "Roll-Back" strategy from the 1950s in which the United States would actively push back the influence of the Soviet Union. Reagan's policy differed, however, in the sense that he relied primarily on the overt support of those fighting Soviet dominance.

SOURCE: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/17741.htm

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REAGAN’S COLD WARMAJOR EVENTS

• Poland’s Solidarity Movement• USSR’s Olympic Boycott• Israel’s invasion of Lebanon/Marine Barrack Bombing• Nicaragua’s “Sandinistas” v. Contras• El Salvadoran Civil War• Invasion of Grenada• CIA given free-hand in Caribbean and Central

America• Initiates talks with Gorbachev

– Glasnost and Perestroika(= openness and economic restructuring)

http://www.usip.org/training/analysis/graphics/1_1_1.php

IRAN CONTRACONTEXT:• Reagan wants to support anti-commie

Contra rebels in Nicaragua• Iran is losing war against US-supported Iraq.• US cannot free American hostages in Lebanon.

SOLUTION:

US secretly gives weapons to Iran, in exchange for support freeing hostages and for money. Money buys weapons for Contra rebels.

IMPACT:

Reagan denies knowledge/memory of plot. Col. Ollie North and Admiral Poindexter found criminally responsible. Reagan appears senile. Turns out, he was – with Alzheimer’s.

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President George Bush, Sr.

• Defeats Michael Dukakis• Experienced

– VP for 8 years– Director of CIA– Emissary to China– Ambassador to UN

* IS PRESIDENT DURING FALL OF USSR AND TIANANMEN SQUARE CRISIS.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gb41.html

BUSH Sr.’s FOREIGN POLICIES

• Collapse of USSR / Creation of CIS / Boris Yeltsin• Fall of Berlin Wall• Tiananmen Square crisis• START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks)• Persian Gulf War

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OPERATION DESERT STORM

•Intl. Coalition to Liberate Kuwait•UN supports invasion•Western & Arab Nations involved•UN forces dominate air, then land

POWELL DOCTRINE, 1991After the end of Persian Gulf War in 1991, Colin Powell, then

chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, outlined his vision for efficient and decisive military action. His plan is now referred to as the Powell Doctrine…

Powell… invoked the Doctrine in articulating the justifications for the Bush administration's preparations for war in Iraq.

….Essentially, the Doctrine expresses that military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged

WHAT PROBLEMS DID THE FALL OF USSR CREATE? (P. 1008-1009)

• Genocide in former Yugoslavia

• Refugees flood Western Europe

• Economic stress on EU

• Spread of Nuclear and Chemical Weapons

• Loss of Military Contracts / Economic Restructuring

• End of “brushfire” conflicts in 3rd World

BUSH Sr.’s DOMESTIC POLICIES“kinder, gentler America” (???)

• 1990: American with Disabilities Act

• Appoints Clarence Thomas to Supreme Ct.

• Restricts Affirmative Action

• “Gender Gap” hurts Republicans

• Rising Unemployment

• Stalling Economy

• 27th Amendment limits congressional pay raises

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The "Reagan revolution" cut social services and ratcheted up the arms race while emasculating federal regulatory agencies and shifting income and resources away from the neediest Americans. Celebrators of the top-down prosperity of the mid- and later 1980s typically ignored profound problems such as the trade gap, the growing federal debt, the S&L crisis, and major abuses in the world of investment banking. They also overlooked the plight of millions of lower-income Americans and urban minorities, as well as displaced industrial workers and even struggling members of the middle class. Discuss your view of this assessment.

To his admirers, Reagan had restored American patriotism, rebuilt an eroded military, ended inflation, stimulated the economy, and reaffirmed the old verities of individualism and self-reliance. One of his fans, Great Britain's conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, affirmed, "He has left America stronger, prouder, greater than ever before, and we thank him for it." Discuss your view of this assessment.