Analyzing the Impact of the Reagan Doctrine

Currents Events and U.S. Diplomacy

Joseph D. Williams

Professor Tracy Herman

POL 300 International Problems

August 17, 2016

The Reagan Doctrine

The term “doctrine” definition is “A statement of authorized government policy, especially in overseas concerns and military strategy” (“Doctrine”, n.d.). The expression Presidential doctrine means an ideological platform that a president uses to spread a policy towards a country or region in order to accomplish foreign policy objectives for the United States. Presidents like James Monroe, Harry S. Truman, and Richard Nixon etc. articulated their policies but amongst these executive doctrines, the doctrine of President Reagan is significant.

The diplomatic doctrine of Reagan, known to all as the

Reagan’s foreign policy intention was to eliminate the efforts of the Soviet Union to prolong its domination and from this time, he opted for the formulation of his doctrine to aid the rebels who in various countries of the world who were attempting to overthrown the Soviet regimes (Carpenter, 1986). Relative to this point, it must be mentioned that in distinction to the earlier Cold War doctrine of “inclosing”, Reagan’s Doctrine projected “American moral and material backing for rebellious actions trying to oust Soviet-backed regimes in various Third World nations” (Carpenter, 1986). Additionally, it must be stated that the Reagan Doctrine came into being as the outcome of the thwarting of the U.S. administration over the Soviet progresses in Africa, Central America, and Central Asia. “Just as the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Chinese leader Mao reinforced armed revolutions against colonial or U.S.-aligned states, American power would now reassure and upkeep rebels against communist states” (“The Reagan Doctrine”, and for some of the rebels who were rendering efforts, with the aid of the U.S., to banish the Soviet supported regimes in their individual nations. The practical implementation of some of the policies of the doctrine prompted confusion in the U.S. political dominion itself. If one would examine, to turn the doctrine’s theory into practice Reagan allowed the sale of weapons to Iran, and the profit of such trade was meant to provide monetary aid to the contras – the anti-Sandinista rebels who were secretly trained by the U.S. Special Forces (“The Reagan Doctrine”, n.d.). Additionally, as the contras were both supported and tactically developed by the U.S. and were used against the Soviet supported regimes, the “Exposure of the Iran-Contra affair in late 1986 provoked a chief congressional examination. The scandal seriously weakened the influence of the president” (“The Reagan Doctrine”, n.d.). In addition, the exposure of the negative side of the Reagan Doctrine ultimately subsided the American preoccupation of Nicaragua in 1987 (“The Reagan Doctrine”, n.d.). One must note that it was due to the implementation of the Reagan Doctrine that countries like Nicaragua in the end could claim peace because the doctrine paved the way for the beginning of general election in Nicaraguan. In 1990 the outcome of which was that the “Nicaraguan disapproval directed the Sandinistas, resulting in an end to a