American Foreign Policy Since 1972

Unit 11 chapters 23, 24, 25, and 26Gateway Chapter 16

Part 2

IV. The Reagan Presidency (1981 – 1989)A. Vietnam, Watergate, and the Iranian Hostage

Crisis had made Americans feel weak.B. Ronald Reagan, a former movie star and Gov.

of California, pledged to make America strong again.

C. International terrorism worsened in Lebanon, Beirut, and Libya.

1. Reagan declared he would NOT negotiate with terrorists and organized punitive air strikes.

D. Reagan called the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire.” 1. He wanted to roll Communism back and ensure

a free world.2. He sent assistance to anti-Communist fighters in

Afghanistan, Grenada, and Nicaragua.3. This became known as the “Reagan Doctrine.”

E. The Iran-Contra Affair1. American official secretly

sold arms to Iran, which was then engaged in the Iran-Iraq War, for helping in freeing American hostages in Lebanon.

2. Money secretly received from Iran for these arms was then handed over to the anti-Communist Contras in Nicaragua, despite a Congressional ban on U.S. aid to the Contras.

3. When the plan was discovered, several high-ranking officials resigned, although Reagan himself claimed no knowledge of the deal.

F. The Soviet Union was suffering from economic stagnation, corruption, expensive wars, and social problems like alcoholism.

1. Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power in 1985 and attempted reforms.

a. Glasnost (openness) allowed people to openly criticize government and suggest change.

b. Perestroika (restructuring) allowed limited free enterprise to stimulate the economy.

G. Gorbachev withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

H. Reagan’s plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative, to protect the U.S. against nuclear attack, would have been too expensive for the Soviet Union to match.

1. Reagan and Gorbachev met in Iceland.2. They agreed to reduce their nuclear arms.

V. The George H. W. Bush Presidency (1989 – 1993)

A. George H. W. Bush was elected President in 1988.

1. During the Presidency, independence movements spread across Eastern Europe and within the Soviet Union.

a. Gorbachev refused to use force against them.

b. The Baltic states won their independence

c. Poland elected a non-Communist government

d. The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989.

B. The Soviet Union dissolved at the end of 1991 1. Russia declared its independence and formed

the Commonwealth of Independent States with several other Soviet republics.

2. East and West Germany reunited in 1990.3. The Cold War thus came to an end.

C. Pressure from the U.S. and other countries eventually forced South Africa to end apartheid.

1. Black South African leader Nelson Mandela was later elected President in 1994.

D. The Soviet Union’s collapse meant the U.S. became the sole superpower.

1. Bush used military power to promote a “New World Order” of democratic values.

2. He sent troops to arrest Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

3. He sent troops to chase Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces out of oil-rich Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War.

4. Bush also sent troops with food on a humanitarian mission to millions of starving people in Somalia, Africa