Political Leaders In The 80's Essay
The actions of political leaders in the 80’s would prove important in shaping our world today. In January of 1981, Ronald Reagan was elected to be the next president of the United States of America. Reagan was a conservative and at the time his rise to presidency was called the “Reagan Revolution”. The Reagan administration was extremely anti-communist, a result of the second Red Scare that took place in the 50’s, known as McCarthyism. Reagan also had direct involvement in these Red Scare tactics when he secretly gave the FBI information about Communist activity in the entertainment industry. In the Iran-Contra affair, the Reagan administration was caught selling arms to Iran, and using the revenue to fund a group of rebels in Nicaragua called
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Contra. Reagan denied he was aware of any such scheme, but it certainly follows his trend of an anti-communist stance, due to the presence of the socialist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua at the time. Reagan is perhaps most well known for his hard stance against the USSR. Through a series of treaties and summits, such as the INF Treaty and START I, he engaged in nuclear arms reduction and, with cooperation of Gorbachev, was able to end the Cold War. Margaret Thatcher who was Prime Minister of Britain at the time, had interests that aligned very well with Reagan’s and the two became close political allies and friends. She went on to tell Reagan that Gorbachev could be trusted and that they could work with him to resolve the issue. Thatcher was the first female to be Prime Minister of Britain. She increased Britain’s GDP by 23% over her years in office. She did this by lowering direct income taxes, increasing indirect taxes, limited public spending, and reduced spending on various social services. Privatization also played a key role in her economic reforms. As stated earlier Thatcher shared a great distaste for communism with Reagan, but she didn’t agree with Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983. Thatcher was also responsible for resolving the issue of Hong Kong’s sovereignty. She signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which promised Chinese officials that Hong Kong would be handed to them in 1997. She made her first move against the USSR when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979. She didn’t want to impose any economic sanctions, in fear of Britain’s own economy, and also supplied Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, with weapons in 1981. During the Iran-Iraq war, which Saddam initiated and ended up lasting from 1980-1988, much of the western nation’s support went to Iraq. This primarily occurred due to profit made from weapon sales, such as chemical weapons, and an urge to limit communist influence by the Soviet Union on Iran.
Ironically the Soviet Union was providing aid to the Iraqi’s as well, because they were angered at Iran for destroying their Tudeh party, which was Iran’s communist party. The chemical weapons supplied to Saddam’s army would later be used to cause 50,000 Iranian casualties. The political arena in the 80’s was marked by anti-Communist policies in the west coupled with the beginning of globalization. Islamism became a major political force in the middle east, and the series of wars and invasions in the region would give rise to various the dictatorships, monopolies, and radical groups we recognize today. The fall of the USSR would mark the end of a major communist superpower, signifying the adoption of right-wing policies all around the world. Though we generally like to think of the west as being the policemen of the world who never do anything wrong, several events that occurred in the 80’s make us question the legitimacy of the western states. We supported various entities that would go on to commit war crimes, silenced the political values of numerous nations and infringed upon their
sovereignty. The west even engaged in rogue militant imperialism, which can be seen in the invasion of Grenada. To question our legitimacy is to question our environment and to address the distorted lens under which we have been raised. As far as I can tell, it looks like the image of American identity has a lot of refracting to do.
Contra. Reagan denied he was aware of any such scheme, but it certainly follows his trend of an anti-communist stance, due to the presence of the socialist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua at the time. Reagan is perhaps most well known for his hard stance against the USSR. Through a series of treaties and summits, such as the INF Treaty and START I, he engaged in nuclear arms reduction and, with cooperation of Gorbachev, was able to end the Cold War. Margaret Thatcher who was Prime Minister of Britain at the time, had interests that aligned very well with Reagan’s and the two became close political allies and friends. She went on to tell Reagan that Gorbachev could be trusted and that they could work with him to resolve the issue. Thatcher was the first female to be Prime Minister of Britain. She increased Britain’s GDP by 23% over her years in office. She did this by lowering direct income taxes, increasing indirect taxes, limited public spending, and reduced spending on various social services. Privatization also played a key role in her economic reforms. As stated earlier Thatcher shared a great distaste for communism with Reagan, but she didn’t agree with Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983. Thatcher was also responsible for resolving the issue of Hong Kong’s sovereignty. She signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which promised Chinese officials that Hong Kong would be handed to them in 1997. She made her first move against the USSR when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979. She didn’t want to impose any economic sanctions, in fear of Britain’s own economy, and also supplied Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, with weapons in 1981. During the Iran-Iraq war, which Saddam initiated and ended up lasting from 1980-1988, much of the western nation’s support went to Iraq. This primarily occurred due to profit made from weapon sales, such as chemical weapons, and an urge to limit communist influence by the Soviet Union on Iran.
Ironically the Soviet Union was providing aid to the Iraqi’s as well, because they were angered at Iran for destroying their Tudeh party, which was Iran’s communist party. The chemical weapons supplied to Saddam’s army would later be used to cause 50,000 Iranian casualties. The political arena in the 80’s was marked by anti-Communist policies in the west coupled with the beginning of globalization. Islamism became a major political force in the middle east, and the series of wars and invasions in the region would give rise to various the dictatorships, monopolies, and radical groups we recognize today. The fall of the USSR would mark the end of a major communist superpower, signifying the adoption of right-wing policies all around the world. Though we generally like to think of the west as being the policemen of the world who never do anything wrong, several events that occurred in the 80’s make us question the legitimacy of the western states. We supported various entities that would go on to commit war crimes, silenced the political values of numerous nations and infringed upon their
sovereignty. The west even engaged in rogue militant imperialism, which can be seen in the invasion of Grenada. To question our legitimacy is to question our environment and to address the distorted lens under which we have been raised. As far as I can tell, it looks like the image of American identity has a lot of refracting to do.