Reagan Turning Points

Throughout the history of the United States, the domestic and foreign policies of presidents led to turning points in the politics, economics, and society of the United States. A majority of these turning points have happened in the modern era of 1976-2017. However, the turning point that impacted U.S. politics, economics, and society the most happened during the Reagan administration. Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies led to huge changes in the United States through changing economic policies and how the U.S. would confront the major crisis during the time period, the Soviet Union and the spread of Communism. Before Reagan assumed office, Jimmy Carter was president. Carter inherited an economy that was making a slow return from recession.
presidents adopted the fundamental policy of containing the Soviet Union and Communism that Harry Truman established in 1947. Reagan wanted to change this policy believing that the Soviets were taking advantage of it. “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” (Cannon, “Ronald Reagan: Foreign Affairs” 2017). Due to this, Reagan increase military defense expenditure by 7% increases between the years of 1981 and 1985. The defense buildup was intended for achieving three objectives: showing Western Europe that the United States has their back, being prepared for an outbreak of war, and bring the Soviets back to the bargaining table. “This surge in military spending reaped a number of benefits…the money invested in military-related research and development proved a spur to certain segments of the economy, especially the high-tech sector…coupled with promises that the American military would again be unsurpassed, boosted the confidence of the public” (Cannon, “Ronald Reagan: Foreign Affairs” 2017). Along with these spending, Reagan changed how the language with which the U.S. spoke to the Soviet Union. Past presidents stressed cooperation, but Reagan spoke with aggressive anti-Soviet rhetoric and made his distrust of the Soviet Union clear. However, despite all this Reagan wanted to start negotiations with the Soviet Union. Dubbed START by Reagan, the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks aimed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in each superpower’s arsenal rather than slow down the arms race. These talks, however, didn’t do much to improve U.S.-Soviet relations as the Soviet Union deployed SS-20 intermediated nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe. It was during this confrontation that Reagan announced his plan for a missile-defense system. It wasn’t until Mikhail Gorbachev came to power