1. 9.2 The Reagan Revolution

2. Election of 1980
Democrats – majority of democrats by the late 20th century were liberal (favored government intervention to help the needy)
Republicans – majority of republicans by the late 20th century were conservatives (favored the free market, private organizations, and individuals to help the needy)
Election of 1980 – Ronald Reagan (R) v Jimmy Carter (D)
Reagan wins election
Former Hollywood Actor

3. Reaganomics & Conservatism
1980 – Economy is still suffering from high inflation and high unemployment
Reagan introduces Reaganomics to the nation
Reaganomics/supply-side economics: Economic philosophy that assumes that if taxes are reduced, people will work more and have more money to spend, causing the economy to grow
Biggest tax cut to the upper class  idea was that the wealthy would have more money to spend which would make its way down to the lower class (trickle-down economics)

4. Cut the federal budget by $40 billion mostly by cutting funding for social programs
Caused a recession from with the unemployment rate reaching over 10%
Economy turned around which Reagan responded by increasing federal spending (defense spending) which greatly increased the national debt
$79 billion in 1981  $221 billion in 1986

5. Reagan & The End of the Cold War
Reagan believed that the United States needed to move away from détente and go back to using strength to achieve peace
Largest peacetime military buildup in U.S. history
New nuclear missile weapons
Covert operations against Soviet Union and their allies
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) – proposed program in which land and space-based lasers would destroy and missiles aimed at the U.S. “Star Wars” program

6. Reagan also sought to weaken the Soviet Union by supporting anticommunist rebellions around the globe
U.S. funded anti-Soviet rebels (mujahedeen) in Afghanistan  Soviet withdrawal in 1988
U.S. back Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries (Contras) against Soviet-friendly Sandinista government
Sent U.S. troops to topple a communist coup in Grenada
Newly elected President of the Soviet Union (Mikhail Gorbachev) introduced perestroika (reforms) and created new open dialogue with the U.S.
Gorbachev and Reagan met 4 times between 1985 and 1989
By the end of Reagan’s presidency the Soviet Union falls and the Cold War ends
Tearing down of Berlin Wall – Nov. 9, 1989
Communism falls in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc.