Jimmy Carter In The Cold War

Throughout the roughly 50 years of the Cold War, United States Presidents attempted to exert their power and authority over American foreign policy with vastly different results. Presidents during the war faced an increasingly disaffected general American population. Securing their support was a cornerstone in determining the effectiveness of any President’s foreign Policy. The Cold War challenged the security of the US as a unified hegemon, forcing Presidents into making tough decisions on behalf of the American People. As the world grew ever more interconnected, defining and defending US global interests against Communism became less black and white. In my own personal view Jimmy Carter was the least effective Cold War President, while Ronald

Regan is the most effective President and Carter is the least effective because both men took on the same issues, but Carter’s decisions were ineffective and lost him support, while Reagan’s decisions ended conflicts and the Cold War. There is not one set of unique characteristics that define a good or bad President in the foreign policy arena, but rather the success of US Presidents’ foreign policy is dependent on how each President chooses to use their authority. President Jimmy Carter assumed the role as Commander-in-Chief with very little experience in foreign policy, hence why the few diplomatic achievements and foreign affairs he orchestrated were overlooked due to being too regionalized and or utterly ineffective. Carter was a sensational humanitarian, with the emphasis of his foreign policy on human rights, but it was also his kryptonite to being an effective leader. His policy efforts to achieve peace took decades to see results, and moreover ironically produced greater global instability and never established peace. Carter’s international campaign to bring awareness towards human rights and the negative impacts of communism on the people lives failed because “By the time Carter became

His extreme effectiveness feeds from decision-making ability that turned the country away from the negative and instable foreign policy of Carter and back to support winning the Cold War and promoting the strength of the US. In the 1970s, because Carter allowed Communism to gain military and territorial advantages, and failed to impose American hegemon and his own power as President. Reagan took office in 1981, “he was determined to rebuild that power, regain for the United States the capability to wage war successfully against the Soviets, to act with impunity against Soviet Third World clients, and to regain its status as the world’s dominant military force.” Reagan handled the Iran hostage Crisis within the hour of assuming the Presidency. Simultaneously, doing what was necessary to free Americans, and to use his power as President to go outside the constitution and congress and secure funding for the Contras to overthrown the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and restore the nation to a pro-American government. Unlike Carter Reagan wanted to make it clear he only cared about protecting American security, and that human rights could be an after