There were too many interests at stake for the US, and the immediate goal was to diminish the government of Nicaragua which was controlled by the Sandinistas. Therefore, Honduras was in the middle of political controversy with no-guaranteed outcome. At the heart of Reagan's foreign policy was the prevention of communist expansion. For that purpose, the United States became heavily involved in wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration described its involvement as an effort to stem Soviet influence in the hemisphere. President Reagan determination to promote democracy in Central America was not only his policy but his priority−at least on paper.
“I expressed my determination to see democracy prevail in Central America. It is already the policy of the US Government to promote democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere. The
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Additionally, he emphasized how the Sandinistas and its Marxist-Leninist regime represented destabilization to its neighbors. Even though his statements were powerful, they needed to be supported with actions. Therefore, strong financial and military support of the Contras against the communist Nicaraguan government, and the aid given to the government of El Salvador in their fight against the communist guerrillas were critical. In the case of Nicaragua's contra guerrillas, which were created to fight the revolutionary Sandinista government, Reagan referred to the Contras as "the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers" and the United States spent $1 billion on them; the fighting in Nicaragua killed as many as 50,000 people while Honduras served as a staging ground for US Nicaraguan
The number one reason the U.S. involved themselves with El Salvador was because the Communist political party started becoming a magnificent threat to the nation. Communism is the belief directed from Karl Marx, where everyone is essentially treated equal. In El Salvador during the 1980s, the Communist group, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (a.k.a. FMLN), and three other political parties were pushing for more power. Since these groups were
The motivation behind US endeavors during the Cold War was to interfere with Latin American countries politically to counter the spread of communist ideologies that were seen by the US as being directly opposed to its economic and philosophical interests. The US’ economic interests were spread and consolidated through corporations operating within Latin America such as Alcoa, United Fruit, and others. It is through these corporate interests, which were under threat of nationalizion in their respective countries by leftist governments taking hold, that the US justified much of its involvement toppling governments in the region.
Also, the growing presence of the Soviets and Cuba in Nicaragua escalated the cold war and in order to ‘draw the line” the Reagan administration “doubled economic aid for El Salvador to a hundred and forty four million dollars” (pg 40). According to Danner, “the priorities of American Policy in El Salvador had become unmistakable” (pg 41).Second, The American government was “opposed to dispatching American combat forces to Central America” (pg 22) and in order to prevent another Nicaragua, Congress agreed to “reform” the Salvadoran Army by financing, training and arming its troops to fight the FMLN. As Danner notes, “the Americans had stepped forward to fund the war, but were unwilling to fight it”. Third, the Monterrosa led Atlacatl led batallion through American funding descended in El Mozote with “the latest M-16’s, M-60 machines guns, 90 millimeter recoilless rifles, and 60- and 81 millimeter mortars”(pg 39) and with a list of names massacred an entire village because “communism was cancer”(pg 49). The U.S. government was clearly responsible for the Massacre at El Mozote because without the funding, supporting, and training of El Salvador troops the war would have been tilted in the guerillas favor as they had managed to hold the disorganized army in certain areas. In contrast to neighboring departments El Mozote and its inhabitants of born-again Christians did not fit in as guerilla sympathizers. In fact, the training at American hands
Since the communist threat was so high during this time, Reagan instituted the Reagan Doctrine, which was a foreign policy that said America would help any groups fighting against the Communists that were in the control of other countries. American aid was sent to other countries to help fight off the Communists, and furthermore, the military was sent to train and advise the insurgents to fight the threat. The Reagan Doctrine played an important role with the aid going to Central America when Communism was running rampant among the countries there. With the American help, Central American countries were able to fight off the Soviet expansion and were liberated. Also, in another country, Afghanistan, the Reagan Doctrine helped repel the
21. When Congress blocked President Reagan's efforts to help opponents of the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua,
On October 25, 1983 Ronald Reagan sent 1,000 troops to the island of Grenada to ensure the safety of Americans studying medicine in the local hospital. In 1979, Maurice Bishop took power in Grenada and had close relations with Cuba which was communist. Bishops was then assassinated by Bernard Coard who established a communist government. This is the reason that Reagan deployed troops in Grenada. He didn’t want the influence of a Marxist government on the Americans. Many Americans were unsure of the invasion. But Reagan saw it as a victory because they were able to "roll back" Communist influence in the area. Coard’s government fell apart and the US brought in a leader who was approved by the United States. We also brought back the Grenada
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was plagued with a stagnant economy – it had no incentive to promote communism in Central America. Ignoring the USSR’s economic weakness, Reagan asserted squashing the Salvadoran rebels would stem the spread of communism and would reestablish American preeminence in Central America. Reagan believed that enforcing anti-communist ideology would protect American national security interests by protecting the United States from its Bolshevik enemies.
There were two countries involved with the United States in the scandal, Iran in the Middle East and Nicaragua in Central America. Nicaragua is the sight of the Contras, a group that was against the Nicaraguan government in the 80’s, and were often looked at as human rights abusers. The Nicaraguan government was seen by Americans as communists so in Regan’s eyes the anti government Contras were anti communists, and Reagan wanted to support them, and fund
Perhaps Reagan's most controversial cause was his foreign policy. He wanted to prevent communist expansion and helped countries free themselves of it and believed the nation should negotiate with the Soviet Union. On Washington Summit in December of
However, in November of 1980, the voters of the United States elected President Ronald Reagan on a platform that promised the overthrow of the "Marxist Sandinistas of Nicaragua." And within a month of Reagan's taking office, counter-revolutionary forces, formed from the remnants of the Somozas' old National Guard were training in Florida in open violation of the Neutrality Act of 1789.
I think there were many things that played in the role of Trump winning and the number one I believe was that the so called “Reagan Democrats” made another large appearance from Michigan and the midwest. Trump highly concentrated his efforts in those rural areas and reached out to those american people who lost their job to foreign trade due to trade deals, which he was fighting against through his whole campaign. Like Trump, Reagan was a bit of an odd candidate since the majority of the country was used to seeing him on their tv and movies, but he related to the people. Even though Trump was outlandish and had some cruel things to say about minorities and was a bit cocky, he still related to these everyday less political people and spiked
One example of the Reagan Doctrine's application was in Nicaragua. At the time Nicaragua was ruled by a military government that had been established by the Sandinista revolutionaries after overthrowing Somoza, who was a vicious and dishonest dictator. The Reagan administration along with the CIA helped to unite a Nicaraguan guerilla force known as the Contras. They become the most well-known American-backed guerilla army under the Reagan Doctrine. Some considered the Contras to be a terrorist organization, while others thought of them as valiant, anti-communist freedom fighters. The Reagan administration believed in the Contra's cause but by the mid 1980's it was clear to the US policymakers that a military victory in Nicaragua would not be possible for the Contras without a direct U.S. military intervention.
i. Role of Oliver North: national security aid, stationed in the white house. he directed money from the Iranian arms sales to the contras. congress had banned this, do not fund the contras anymore. congress had forbidden this aid. North had circumvented this ban by raising money from wealthy conservatives from other governments, to fund this. (wealthy new right conservatives funded this) all in secret to the congress and to the people. New story broke, televised hearings in 1987, erased computer files right before the fbi arrived. he defended it by saying sometimes you need to go above the law for patriotism. he emphasized, I love my country and I am a patriot. Reagan praised north as a national hero, for undergoing this with American security in mind, but he also fired him. TV Reagan denied knowing anything about the scandal, but
A solution to the Nicaraguan problem seemed more difficult to solve, Reagan wanted desperately to help the “contras” but was mandated by congress to stay out of the affair. His advisors secretly proposed a way to kill two birds with one stone, a decision that came to be referred to as Ronald Reagan’s black mark on his almost spotless record on foreign policy. The U.S would sale weapons to Iran in return for hostages taken by Muslim Jihadist in Lebanon, and with the money Iran paid those weapons with the U.S would direct that money to the contras fighting the Sandinistas. While the reasons for the trade were honorable and the president was following the American policy of communist containment at the time, it was still nonetheless illegal and badly battered Reagan’s reputation.
The Reagan Doctrine was the foreign policy in the United States, legislated by President Ronald Reagan. This doctrine was design to eliminate the communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that were indorsed and validated by the Soviet Union. This assignment will summarize how the United States provided open and private support to guerrilla and resistance movements during the Regan years. In addition, explicate the diplomatic doctrine specific events that occurred in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union invaded. Finally, this assignment will describe the advantages and disadvantages based on the Regan Doctrine. Summarize The Situation of U.S. Diplomatic of The Regan Doctrine Throughout the opening years of the Cold War, Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter all sanctioned policies against communism in order to contain it. Ronald Regan rejected their détente policy in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. This alone proved that policies that only contain communism were ineffective. Regan disapproved in the compromise policy when it came to any communist government. Instead, Reagan proposed the Rollback strategy. The making of the Reagan Doctrine shifted from containment and spreading to eliminating all current communist governments. Furthermore, the United States wanted to increase and encourage democracy and capitalism in replacement of ousted communistregimes (Conservapedia, 2012).Implementation of the Regan Doctrine was to provide