How Did Ronald Reagan’s Foreign Policy Help Debilitate The Soviet Union?

How did Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy help debilitate the Soviet Union?


I. Introduction

From the day Ronald Reagan was understood the conflicts of the world, he had a goal he wanted to save people; he wanted to help them be free. On his late teens Regan worked as lifeguard he managed to save 77 people, from this point on he reaffirmed his goal. Reagan always stood at what he believedin, Reagan was sometimes heavily criticized because of how he acted but that never stopped him from doing what he believed in. When he became president he had a plan to debilitate the Soviet economy and therefore debilitate the Soviet Sphere of Influence. Regan’s foreign policy was strategically built to grow the United States influence were the Soviet Union’s influence was considerable threat toU.S. interests.
II. Background
Reagan’s foreign policy was mainly directed to preserve U.S., Western Europe and NATO countries influence around to globe, to debilitate Communism. These strong alliances made possible to do a first strike on the Soviets. NATO made a decision to deploy U.S. Pershing II and Cruise missiles in West Germany, they were deployed to counter the deployment of SovietSS-20 medium range missiles in Eastern Europe. The deployment of these weapons was only possible because Western European Parliaments voted on accepting them. “Moscow thereby suffered a major political defeat in Europe at a time when its own leadership was in Transition” (Nuechterlein, 2). Reagan had also a great success by pressuring “the governments of South Korea, the Philippines, Brazil,Argentina, and South Africa, among others, to abandon authoritarian and repressive internal policies and institute democratic constitutional reforms” (Nuechterlein 3). With this we can see how Regan’s strong global influential foreign policy helped him lower the Soviet global influence.
Reagan always knew that people behind the Iron Curtain lived a miserable life with barely the things they needed tosurvive. Since he was young Regan’s anti-communist beliefs were strong, “In 1950, Reagan joined a group called ‘The Crusader for Freedom’ which called for the liberation of Eastern Europe from Soviet Domination” (Vuoto 2). He was always a firm believer of Democracy and Capitalism, and what the United States stood up for. When he became president a reporter asked him, what is your goal?, “To endthe Cold War. There has to be a way and its time” (Jeffrey 2). We can see here how he had a determination, he was not just saying this to win his campaign, but because it was his life’s purpose.
Reagan was very aware that the United States was vulnerable to Ballistic Missile attacks. He knew that “vulnerability to such missile attacks could be exploited” (Gaffney 1). Seeing this he launched hisStrategic Defense Initiative (SDI), to be ready for any attack from the Soviets or any other country with Ballistic Missiles. “President Reagan’s determination to defend America against then-present and future missile-wielding enemies was as firm as his conviction that technology could be brought to bear that objective” (Gaffney 2). Unfortunately, the SDI was never deployed because of “1972Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which purported to codify Mutual Assured Destruction by banning effective missile defenses”(Gaffney 2). This remained the law that both the Soviet Union and the Unites Stated had to follow because of this treaty.
Reagan understood clearly that “Communism was based on a totalitarian system of mass murder, torture, slave labor camps and the abrogation of human rights”(Vuoto 2). He understood that Soviet policies were expansionists and that there had to be a way to stop it. With the U.S. support given to so many countries like Grenada, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, supporting the Solidarity Movement in Poland and the creation of SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), Reagan was able to Make the Soviet Union have a bankruptcy in its economy and therefore having to stop...