Foreign Affairs on Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton Essay Example
Foreign Affairs
Foreign affairs during the presidential terms of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Senior, and William "Bill" Clinton battled with conflicts mainly involving the Soviet Union, until its collapse in 1991, and the Middle East. Some of these presidents handled foreign affairs very well and tactful, yet others did a poor job at keeping things in order and dealing with the affairs. Although a mixture of Republicans and Democrats, the presidents shared the same goal of making peace with foreign countries and preventing war with hostile nations. Gerald Ford, the thirty-eighth president of the United States of America came took the oath in office on August 9, 1974 after Nixon had resigned. He was known as the "Accidental President" and declared, "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts," after swearing in. Ford had been vice president for the previous two years under Nixon's term until his resignation. Ford was viewed by himself as a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs. For the first term of his presidency, Ford entrusted the foreign policy in the hands of the US Secretary of State, Kissinger, which gave Ford plenty of time to meet and become friends with world leaders. Ford met with the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhneve and the leaders of other European nations to sign the Helsinki Accords in 1975, which recognized the existing boundaries after the second world war. Strong states on human rights, which later in the Carter term would be used to hold the Soviets responsible for their actions in the Eastern European nations were included in the accords. Mr. Ford called for greater increases in defense spending to throw back at his critics who said that the accords had accepted the Soviet ruling in eastern European countries. Disagreements dealing with limits on Soviet bombers and American cruise missiles resulted
Foreign affairs during the presidential terms of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Senior, and William "Bill" Clinton battled with conflicts mainly involving the Soviet Union, until its collapse in 1991, and the Middle East. Some of these presidents handled foreign affairs very well and tactful, yet others did a poor job at keeping things in order and dealing with the affairs. Although a mixture of Republicans and Democrats, the presidents shared the same goal of making peace with foreign countries and preventing war with hostile nations. Gerald Ford, the thirty-eighth president of the United States of America came took the oath in office on August 9, 1974 after Nixon had resigned. He was known as the "Accidental President" and declared, "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts," after swearing in. Ford had been vice president for the previous two years under Nixon's term until his resignation. Ford was viewed by himself as a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs. For the first term of his presidency, Ford entrusted the foreign policy in the hands of the US Secretary of State, Kissinger, which gave Ford plenty of time to meet and become friends with world leaders. Ford met with the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhneve and the leaders of other European nations to sign the Helsinki Accords in 1975, which recognized the existing boundaries after the second world war. Strong states on human rights, which later in the Carter term would be used to hold the Soviets responsible for their actions in the Eastern European nations were included in the accords. Mr. Ford called for greater increases in defense spending to throw back at his critics who said that the accords had accepted the Soviet ruling in eastern European countries. Disagreements dealing with limits on Soviet bombers and American cruise missiles resulted