The Cold War, Current Events, and U.S. Diplomacy
The Cold War was a period of military and political tension between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II. When Ronald Reagan ran for President, he strongly campaigned against the growth of communism. He was convinced that most of America 's problems in the world could be traced to the Soviet Union 's determination to extend its influence abroad through military pressure and communist-instigated revolutions. Reagan left no doubt to the American people where he stood on the matter of the Soviet Union, often referring to it as “the evil empire” (Gale, 2003, p. 36). He vowed to protect the United State from the threats of the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal by campaigning for massive new spending on U.S. defense.
One of the most political issues during President Reagan’s time in office involved the negotiations of his missile proposal. Reagan’s stance was previous administrations had not built a strong military defense and he wanted to rectify the problem. Reagan promised a policy of “peace through strength,” (Reagan, 2007, p. 65) believing that only by building up American armed forces strong enough to defeat the Soviet Union could the United States prevent the Communists from initiating World War III. To do this, the United States must “sponsor anticommunist guerrillas who are trying to overthrow pro Soviet regimes” (Berry, N and Roskin, M 2010).
At the time Ronald Reagan became president; Soviet forces had occupied Afghanistan for more than a year. Iran had just released fifty-three American hostages, but the revolutionary regime there remained hostile. Vietnamese troops were occupying Cambodia with Soviet help, and many thousands of Cuban forces, with Soviet advisers, were in Angola. However, the most severe extension of Soviet power, from Reagan 's viewpoint, was the effective Marxist revolution in Nicaragua. After seizing power in Managua in 1979, a hard-core Communist element within the Sandinista coalition consolidated control of the
One of the most political issues during President Reagan’s time in office involved the negotiations of his missile proposal. Reagan’s stance was previous administrations had not built a strong military defense and he wanted to rectify the problem. Reagan promised a policy of “peace through strength,” (Reagan, 2007, p. 65) believing that only by building up American armed forces strong enough to defeat the Soviet Union could the United States prevent the Communists from initiating World War III. To do this, the United States must “sponsor anticommunist guerrillas who are trying to overthrow pro Soviet regimes” (Berry, N and Roskin, M 2010).
At the time Ronald Reagan became president; Soviet forces had occupied Afghanistan for more than a year. Iran had just released fifty-three American hostages, but the revolutionary regime there remained hostile. Vietnamese troops were occupying Cambodia with Soviet help, and many thousands of Cuban forces, with Soviet advisers, were in Angola. However, the most severe extension of Soviet power, from Reagan 's viewpoint, was the effective Marxist revolution in Nicaragua. After seizing power in Managua in 1979, a hard-core Communist element within the Sandinista coalition consolidated control of the
References: Gale, T. (2003). Chapters: 1 - 4. In The Cold War (pp. 1-271). Farmington, MI 48331: Greenhaven Press. Nuechterlein, D. E. (1990). The Reagan doctrine in perspective. Perspectives On Political Science, 19(1), 43. Ratnesar, R. (2009). Chapters: 1 - 10. In Tear Down This Wall (pp. 1-229). New York: Simon & Schuster. Reagan, R. (2007). Chapters: 1- 8. In D. Brinkley (Ed.), The Reagan Diaries (pp. 1-767). New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Roskin, M., & Berry, N. (2010). IR: The new world of international relations: 2010 edition (8th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Longman/Pearson Education.