Ronald Reagan and the Cold War

A New Era or the New Cold War? In 1981 Ronald Reagan became President of the USA. In 1980 the US had been humiliated by Islamic Revolutionary Guards in Iran. They had held US embassy staff captive and Jimmy Carter had ordered US armed forces to rescue them but the mission was a disaster and eight servicemen killed when their helicopter collided with another aircraft.

The Arms Race Reagan had been a fierce anti-Communist back in the McCarthy era. He still was one in 1981. As President he immediately restarted the arms race by commissioning three projects that Carter had ended. B-1 Bomber; MX missile; Trident nuclear submarine He also commissioned the neutron bomb project Defence spending rose by 35% under Reagan Reagan deployed Pershing and Cruise intermediate nuclear missiles in Europe.

Peace through Strength Reagan called his policy Peace through Strength. The USSR would not risk threatening a much stronger USA. He described the USSR as the evil empire. The Reagan doctrine – this confronted the Brezhnev doctrine by aiding any country that opposed communism Stinger missile were sent to the mujaheddin in Afghanistan. Weapons and money were given to the Contras in Nicaragua (where a left-wing gov. was in power) Secret support was given to Solidarity in Poland

Exercise One 1. Why was Reagan accused by his opponents of starting the ‘New Cold War’? 2. What was ‘the Reagan Doctrine’? 3. Why was Reagan willing to support Islamic fighters in Afghanistan? 4. What do you suppose Reagan meant by calling his policy ‘peace through strength’?

SDI In 1982 America and the USSR began the START talks to limit intermediate range nuclear missiles. In 1983 Reagan announced SDI, the Strategic Defence Initiative nicknamed “Star Wars”. This was a plan to construct a laser defence shield around the USA. Any Soviet nuclear missiles could be blasted in space by lasers before reaching the US. It seemed a huge increase in the arms race – and the USSR could not compete. SDI threatened the principle of MAD and so made a nuclear war more likely. In 1983 the Russians walked out of the START talks in protest at Star Wars.

SDI (Star Wars)

Grenada In 1983 Reagan ordered the invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada. The government had invited Cuba to build a new international airport. The US feared another Cuban Missile crisis. In fact only construction workers were found on the island. The left-wing gov. was overthrown and 18 US troops were killed in minor skirmishes.

Reagan and Gorbachev Reagan held a series of meetings with Gorbachev including one in Iceland in 1986 in Reykjavik) and one in Washington DC in 1987. Gorbachev desperately needed to cut defence spending and feared SDI. He wanted to cut missiles in return for US abandoning SDI but Reagan refused to do this so there was no agreement in Iceland. In 1987 they agreed the INF treaty which removed intermediate range weapons (Cruise and SS-20) from Europe. For the first time the USA and USSR were agreeing to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. Gorbachev announced that The Red Army would leave Afghanistan and he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1987. The USA had won the Cold War once the Warsaw Pact collapsed once Gorbachev had abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine in favour of the ‘Sinatra’ Doctrine (each communist country could do things ‘its way’).

Exercise Two 1. Why did SDI threaten the principle of MAD? 2. What impact do you think the US invasion of Grenada had on the Cold War? 3. Why did Reagan and Gorbachev fail to agree in Reykjavik? 4. Why did the 1987 INF Treaty break new ground in US-Soviet missile agreements? 5. Explain what the USSR’s change from the Brezhnev Doctrine to the Sinatra doctrine meant.