The impact of Reagan’s first term
Explaining the resurgence of the West
Conclusion
The Legacy of Faltering Detente
The restoration of Cold War
policies and rhetoric was not initiated by the Reagan administration in 1981,
but by the Carter administration in 1980. President Carter had denounced the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as “the most serious threat to the peace since
the Second World War”.
President Reagan’s First Term Strategy
Reagan adopted a strategy which
became known as “containment plus” which consisted of three key elements:
1.
Unprecedented military build-up in peacetime
2.
Sustained ideological offensive against Moscow
3.
Attempts to check and reverse the perceived growth of
Soviet influence in the Third World.
Explaining Western Resurgence during Reagan’s First
Term
Internal factors:
1.
US domestic support for Reagan’s robust Moscow policy
2.
Comparative consistency of Reagan’s stance
3.
Political appeal of ‘negotiation from strength’
External factors:
1.
Rapid decline of Soviet external infuence in the early
1980s
2.
Leadership vacuum in the USSR
Global factors:
1.
Reduction of turbulence in the Third World
2.
Emergence of the information revolution in
capitalist-democratic states
Conclusion
Under President Reagan’s leadership, there was an
international re-assertion of American power. By 1984, the global strategic
equation had been transformed. Moscow had made no new gains in the Third World
and the US appeared to have recovered its pride and self-confidence after the
traumas of the Vietnam war and its aftermath. Above all, President Reagan had
increased the costs of Cold War competition for the Soviet leadership.