The Cold War
"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind."
-President John F. Kennedy in his Address to the UN General Assembly (September 25, 1961)
Domestic Policies
Similar to his predecessors, President Reagan had major goals that focused on reform and basic change: improving the stagnant economy, lower taxes, balancing the budget, and reducing the size and scope of the federal government (remniscient of President Nixon's "New Federalism"). Reaganomics were the President's proposed series of economic measures. Reagan believed that--based on supply-side economics--if he cut taxes by his proposed 30% over three years, the wealthy and businesses will invest more money thus stimulating growth and employment.
President Reagan intended for Reaganomics to grow the economy thus reducing unemployment. Social Security was a financially unsound problem that Reagan faced because it very difficult to reform without voter turnout repercussions.
In order to reduce the size of the government, Reagan wanted to reduce regulations because he felt that the government should not be as involved in people's lives. He also supported envrionmental protection:
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Montreal Protocol of 1987 that was an international campaign to rid the world of ozone damage.
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Bills to strengthen Safe Water Drinkin Act
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Amendments increasing funding for Superfund hazardous sites clean-up program.
Other domestic policy issues Reagan addressed
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War on Drugs
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Place first woman, Sandra Day O'Connor, on Supreme Court
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Eventual funding for AIDS research after having widely ignored the issue previously.
REAGAN ADMINISTRATION: FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY
(January 20, 1981 - January 20, 1989)
Foreign Policies
Reagan entered office after the damage to the international perception of the US had already been dealt--the loss of the Korean War, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, the oil crises in 1973 and 1979, and the loss of the Vietnam War. Reagan believed that Moscow was the root of all communist aggression and that it needed to be opposed wherever it spread.
The Strategic Defense Initiative was Reagan saying 'no' to the policy of detente that President Carter, Ford, and Nixon practiced with the Soviet Union. President Reagan believed that the Soviet Union used detente to increase military power and ideological influence. Reagan supported a massive build up of nuclear arms because his idea was to force the USSR into submission, however Reagan unecessarily increased defense spending by over 50% since the Carter administration. He was overestimating the strength of the Soviet economy to be able to even support a sustained attack on the US. SDI, "Star Wars," was an idea to have a space-based system that could shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles. This would render Soviet nuclear power pracitcally irrelevant, which is why Soviets were up in arms about the US acquiring a program that could possibly give the US first strike capabilities under the protection of an "umbrella" defense sytem. Soviets believed that SDI undermined the policy of Massive Retaliation and a mutual understanding that if one nation fired on the other it would ensure the complete destruction of both.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marks an end to an era of Cold War tension and President Reagan ends his term as president bearing witness to the predecessor to the complete collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Video summarizing Ronald Reagan's presidency.