The Ronald Reagan Doctrine
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The Ronald Reagan Doctrine
President Ronald Reagan, the second president of America adopted a foreign policy Doctrine that had the main purpose of weakening the Soviet Union. This paper looks at how the Americans encompassed their key ideas in formulating a strategy to oversee their conquest of the Soviet Union. The Reagan doctrine employs the use of peace through strength, articulating the concept of the cold war, the American nation security ought to build a system of defense to protect its citizens, the superpowers in the world should come together and address the issue of the nuclear missiles each nation ought to have, and the super powers should reciprocate their initial distrust among each other with trust and come up with a conclusive plan for attaining eternal peace (Ryan, 2010).
President Reagan proposed a strategy that would steadily reduce and finally eliminate the threat brought about by the communist world. President Reagan supported the anti-communist groups with the argument that the American economy was on an upward scale as opposed to the others including the Soviet Union, which had become stagnant (Scott, 1996). President Reagan during his reign was against the use of nuclear weapons and thus worked hand in hand with his government in ensuring the world is free from the danger of nuclear hostilities. The Reagan doctrine was aimed at opposing and reducing the global threat imposed by Soviet Union during the last periods of the cold war. The doctrine aimed at diminishing the Soviet Union’s ties with its allies in Asia, Africa and the Latin American ethnic groups (Ryan, 2010). This would be made possible by targeting the allies that support the Soviet republic and in the process overthrowing their allies especially in the third world nations (Scott, 1996). This foreign policy was based upon Reagan’s view concerning the Soviet Union as a state that has no concern for humanity and is illegitimate in the end. When the Afghanistan invasion proved futile, President Reagan rejected earlier policies including the détente policy that had been pursued by the Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter in the year 1979 (Scott, 1996). During the Reagan administration, the heritage foundation together with other foreign policy conservative think tanks were responsible for the expansion of the Afghanistan policy into becoming a reality. The heritage foundation targeted nine soviet communist nations that were being under the support of the Soviet Union. In most third world countries the reign of the Soviet Union was a success. Lack of American response to such nations ensured the victory of the Soviet Union and consequently, their Marxist-Leninist rule. Such nations included Iran, Afghanistan, Laos, Algeria, Cambodia, Angola, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Libya (Krauthammer, 1985). President Reagan provided aid to Afghanistan in the form of military training and weapon supply in order to defeat the Soviet Union (Krauthammer, 1985). President Reagan’s doctrine became a reality because the least financial aid America provided to end the reign of the tyrannical Soviet Union governments thus promoting independence and the end of the cold war. This is because the Soviet Union spent a lot of money and resources but in the end suffered huge losses (Krauthammer, 1985).
During the late 1900’s, Nicaragua became the center of focus in Central America where the dictatorial government of Anastasio Somoza was overthrown by the revolutionary coalition led by Augustino Sandino (Russell, 2010). The revolutionary coalition was supported by business people, the Catholic Church, the Sandinistas Liberation Front together with other political elements that had interests in Nicaragua (Russell, 2010). The Sandinistas Liberation Front, FSLN formed the next government, which promised freedom of speech, press and independent judicial system among other promises (Russell, 2010). As soon as the FSLN took power, they began confiscating the media equipment and censoring the newspaper articles being published by the Nicaraguan media houses. When it came to democracy, the FSLN made sure they became ruthless and violent like the previous regime (Russell, 2010). In so doing, the FSLN administration quit being allies with America and joined a partnership with the Soviet Union among other communist countries. During the same period, the Sandinista-supported Marxist guerillas began an offensive attack against the pro-American El Salvador government (Russell, 2010). When the Reagan administration took over, President Reagan employed the use of his Doctrines that promoted to defend democracy and freedom of the oppressed Marxist-Leninist administrations (Scott, 1996).
Even though the Reagan administration was helpful in ending the cold war, their foreign policy campaign did not become successful. The Reagan Doctrine called for both extending freedom and challenging communism. These goals became quite difficult to reconcile especially by the administration policy makers (Krauthammer, 1985). In parts of Latin America, countries such as Nicaragua were at the forefront of engaging in illegal activities (Krauthammer, 1985). The Nicaraguan contras that were being backed by the American government to overthrow the powers allied to the Soviet Union were found to mastermind the trade of illegal drugs and violation of the human rights of its citizens (Krauthammer, 1985). In nations such as Nicaragua, the Reagan Doctrine had its own advantages. One advantage enabled the nation to restore it to its original position as it was a couple of years before the government coup. The large numbers of deaths have reduced tremendously as the people are in a bid to promote democracy and a stable nation in general. Apart from the illegal activities carried out by the contras; there has been a tremendous development (Fossedal, 1985).
In Vietnam, the Reagan Doctrine being the third doctrine attempts to rid the Soviet Union’s influence (Scott, 1996) after the Nixon Doctrine, which relied mainly on the friendly regimes to monitor and police their regions, afterwards came the Carter Doctrine, which declared the American interest in the Persian gulf and any state that would attempt to interfere would become a national threat to America (Krauthammer, 1985). The Reagan Doctrine was extended to Cambodia as well. In Cambodia, the Reagan administration in its bid to apply the Reagan Doctrine, supplied aid to the Khmer Rouge regime (Scott, 1996).
The Khmer Rouge had the worst human rights record in the region during that period. This regime during that time was a resistance group mainly made up of inhuman people who were fighting against the Cambodian government. This regime aimed at eliminating the Vietnamese occupation within the region. Under the command of Son Sann of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, the Vietnamese were withdrawn from Cambodia thereby leading to the collapse of the movement (Krauthammer, 1985). The effect of the Reagan is that due to the support provided by these insurgent groups at that time, a consensus was reached upon which the American congress cannot oppose to support such non communist Cambodian rebels in case they plan to resist invasion by other governments.
Another effect of the Reagan Doctrine was the fact that the nations helped with weapons turned back against America (Scott, 1996). Blowing back was mainly incorporated by nations such as Afghanistan. Afghanistan for example was helped by America in the fight against the Soviet Union but later on, the military hardware and training they were provided with got into the wrong hands of the terrorists who in return are fighting back to the American population.
Another nation that followed the Soviet Union’s Marxist- Leninist state was Chile. During the early 1980’s when President Reagan took office, the Chilean government was under the rule of the military junta that was under the command of General Pinochet (Russell, 2010). General Pinochet exercised his brutal command in Chile after defeating the socialist president Salvador Allende, who the American did not favor at that time (Russell, 2010). The nation became relieved off the oppression of the military juntas through the Reagan Doctrine, which promotes democracy and freedom.
Summarily, President Reagan coming into power was both of significance and detrimental as well. The Reagan Doctrines ensured most of the nation under the Soviet Union’s rule became complete thus promoting peace and the freedom of expression. Even though the Doctrine came with its own consequences for example the violation of human rights by a majority of the nations including Nicaragua, Vietnam among others and the attack of America by the nations the Doctrine helped, president Reagan was at the forefront in fighting the Soviet rule worldwide.
References
Fossedal, G. A. (1985). The Reagan Doctrine. Retrieved January 05, 2012, from http://spectator.org/archives/1985/03/01/the-reagan-doctrine/print
Krauthammer, C. (1985). The Reagan Doctrine. Retrieved January 05, 2012, from http://www.upa.pdx.edu/IMS/currentprojects/TAHv3/Content/PDFs/Reagan_Monroe_Doctrine_TIME.pdf
Russell, R. L. (2010). The Impact of President Reagan’s Foreign Policy Efforts in Chile and
Nicaragua. Retrieved January 05, 2012, from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08082010-190215/unrestricted/Russell_RL_T_2010.pdf
Ryan, C. J. (2010). The Reagan Doctrine: An Analysis of the President’s role in the Formulation and execution of American Foreign Policy. Retrieved January 05, 2012, from https://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CD0QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Feprints.usq.edu.au%2F19955%2F&ei=iCzoUPuVN9GZhQeH2IGIBA&usg=AFQjCNFYGCAhcnPWwLKaVYhaAcpuzaJpcg&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.ZG4.
Scott, J. M. (1996). Deciding to Intervene: The Reagan Doctrine and American Foreign Policy. Durham: Duke University Press.
