FREE ESSAY ON RONALD REAGAN

RONALD REAGAN

Truly, when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the world was changing; his presidency
would be one that would set the tone for the coming decades. Reagan had high expectations
for his term in office; his "first, second, and third priorities" were his economic
plans. His presidency was a remarkable one, but scholars were and continue to be critical
of his "hands-off," macro-management of the government. President Reagan surrounded
himself with some of the brightest minds in the country: James Baker III, George Shultz
.. Often, these are the people who initiated these policy changes, while Reagan is the
one who sold them to the country. But for all that he didn't participate in, Reagan had
an extreme passion for foreign politics, despite being warned against it and the
beginning of his term to focus on the economy and its continued downward slide. His
passion showed in his dealings with the Soviet Union, especially after the rise. He was
instrumental in the reduction of arms of the world's superpowers and key in the
resurgence, in the United States, of military spending.
But, when it came to foreign policy, Reagan had very different views than his
predecessors. Reagan did not believe in detente, he did not believe in appeasement, and
he did not believe in the isolationist movement that had populated American thought for
the better part of the 20th century. He believed that the United States had to defeat the
Soviet Union on the grounds that communism was immoral and resulted in a freedomless
society. The thawing of Soviet-American relations in the later Reagan years was due to a
change in Soviet policy and Soviet leadership and not a drastic change in American policy
under Reagan. 
Reagan's views on the Soviet Union were in place long before he became president. He
viewed the country as a true threat to the superiority of the United States in global
politics and even as a threat to the autonomy of the country as a whole. "There was a
sense that the Soviet Union was on the move [from 1975 through 1979] and that the U.S.
was at great risk if the momentum continued. Reagan felt that and communicated it." His
speeches always conveyed this feeling; even before he was president. In 1962, as governor
of California, Reagan described the Soviet Union as a "single worldwide force dedicated
to the destruction of free enterprise and the creation of a socialist state."
Additionally, in a pre-election address to a club in London, he remarked, "Status quo;
that's Latin for the mess we're in," referring to the current foreign relations strategy
supported by the United States. Journalists called the speech a "strong attack on Western
weakness."
The feeling was apparently mutual. The Soviets, before Mikhail Gorbachev, often refused
to meet with the Reagan. In fact, the Kremlin viewed Reagan as a "dangerously
confrontational figure, whose deeply disturbing animus against all things Russian had
created a solid front of hostility among Politburo leaders." Reagan's firm stance against
communism and those related to it is likely what caused this deep rift in Soviet/U.S.
relations at the beginning of the Reagan administration. The Soviet ambassador called it
"the lowest point since World War II" when he spoke to the President early in 1983.
Reagan main defense of his opinion is that communism oppresses freedom; in his first
inauguration speech, he laid the groundwork for his campaign against communism on that
basis.
Additionally, Reagan disagreed almost totally with the idea of detente, or at least he
disagreed with the detente as it was . While he thought the idea of detente was possible,
he believed that it was largely unsuccessful when dealing with the Soviets. Previous
administrations had used economic aid and trade agreements with Russia to attempt to
obtain concessions on limited arms. Under Reagan, virtually all aid was discontinued to
Russia in the attempt of making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to continue
increase its armament level. Reagan justified this change in strategy by pointing out the
failure of the SALT II treaty proposed by his predecessor, Jimmy Carter. While the
motives of the SALT II treaty were well-founded, Congress failed to ratify it.
In addition to cutting off aid to deter the Soviets from continuing their arms build-up,
Reagan began a large increase in military spending. Previous administrations had been
decreasing spending on the military, citing a decline in hostile relations. Reagan began
increasing funding for the military drastically during his administration. When he took
office in January 1981, he was appalled at the fact that "American planes that couldn't
fly and American ships that couldn't sail for lack of spare parts and trained personnel
and insufficient fuel and ammunition for essential training." Reagan justified this
additional spending because he felt in the event of a crisis, we would be more able to
respond. It is also important to note that Reagan justified the increase to match Soviet
spending. In his speech on Defense and National Security in March of 1983, he notes
"There was a time when we were able to offset superior Soviet numbers with higher
quality, but today they are building weapons as sophisticated and modern as our own." The
increase in military spending and the focus on readiness was also to intimidate the
Soviets into believing that the United States was a threat to its well-being. Perhaps the
most interesting of these intimidation tactics used by the Reagan administration was the
controversial SDI program. SDI, if funded, according to Reagan, would be able to stop a
nuclear attack as it was happening. A "space-shield" of sorts (actually missiles fired at
attacking missiles) would be created around the United States preventing any nuclear
warheads from impacting. Called by critics, "Star Wars," Reagan is often ridiculed for
the program, because of its seemed malfeasance. Even according to some of those in or
close to the Reagan administration, the SDI initiative was never really technically
feasible. Americans were comforted by the defense system probably because it seemingly
provided an almost invincibility during a nuclear attack. "Reagan viewed SDI as a
defensive shield that would contribute to world peace by eliminating the dangers of
nuclear war." 
The announcement of this program, and the huge sums of money being poured into the
military, frightened the Soviets, because they did not have the technology readily
available or the money to fund an arms race. The Soviet economy was on the downturn and
in addition to not having the money to support an arms race, they were unable to take
their focus away from their own domestic problems. But to many, the entire SDI initiative
was a "fog job;" an elaborate scheme to simply fool the Soviets. Caspar Weinberger said
of SDI, "It was a big factor in ending the Cold War, because the Soviets saw, correctly,
that while they might not be able to do it, we almost certainly could, and that would
render impotent a huge amount of their military advantage."
Despite his best efforts in trying to intimidate the Soviet Union through increased
military funding, new technologies, and through powerful rhetoric, what Reagan really
needed was luck. His tactics really had no effect on the Soviet government under
Brezhnev, nor under Andropov. But, when Gorbachev came to power everything changed.
Political analyst Stuart Spencer supports this opinion, "It didn't work with Brezhnev
because he was an old man; it didn't work with Andropov because he was sick. But Reagan
was lucky- he was always a lucky politician. Along came Gorbachev." Essentially what had
changed was that Gorbachev was more in touch with the actual inner workings of the Soviet
Union. "They [knew] it was a bad scene. . they were quite different people than their
predecessors . . . we saw in that an opportunity," George Shultz notes. The opportunity
was there and Reagan captured it. The thaw in relations led to the end of the Cold War
and the end of the Soviet Union.