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Ronald Reagan: Evaluation Although there can certainly be argument about the success of Reagan’s foreign policy, no one can contest that the administration was focused. In his bid for the presidency, Reagan made it clear that he considered the Soviets a threat and that he would take steps to check the spread of communist influence. As his presidency progressed, Reagan stuck by this philosophy. Every major foreign policy maneuver, from the invasion of Grenada to US intervention in Lebanon, had the Soviet Union in mind. The success of these programs, and even their necessity, is questionable, however. One of the gravest threats to the US, as Reagan saw it, was the growth of Communism in the Western Hemispheres. On this stage, the administration experienced one of its finest hours, along with its darkest. The invasion of Grenada in 1983 to expel Soviet and Cuban influence and to rescue American students proved to be one of the wisest and easiest decisions Reagan made in area of foreign policy. The operation went off with out a hitch, the Soviets were expelled from the island that could have become another Cuba, and the students were brought home safely. Still, the whole mission almost backfired when the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut occurred right on top of the decision to invade Grenada. After the tragic deaths brought about by US intervention, initial response to the invasion was negative. The emotional homecoming of the students convinced the nation that the rescue had to be done to save lives. As Secretary of Shultz later wrote, “We had won a clean sweep: on the ground in Grenada and in the hearts of the American people.” The invasion sent a clear message to the Russians and other “usurpers and despots” that the US was willing to use force to defend its principles and its people. While the administration's Central America policy brought about a clear victory, it was also at the center of an incident that nearly caused Reagan’s downfall. The Iran-Contra affair, which funneled profits from illegal arms sales to Iran to Contras fighting against a communist regime in Nicaragua, spawned a congressional investigation into the administration that led to the indictment of several key members of Reagan’s team, including defense secretary Casper Wintered Although aspects of the arms sales to Iran were illegal, the vast majority of indictments that came out of Walsh’s investigation were as a result of the administration’s attempts to hide the nature of the dealings with Congress. Reagan’s involvement in this, the key area, is disputed. While Reagan did authorize the selling of arms to Iran and did sanction continued US aid to the Contras after congressional funding was canceled, there is disagreement as to whether or not Reagan made any attempt to hide the truth from Congress. Walsh was of the opinion that Reagan was “deeply involved in illegal clandestine activities...to thwart investigations by Congress and the courts.” Secretary of State Shultz, who was understandably very close to the issue, had a different view. Shultz insisted that the president was confused and misled about the facts in the incidents. After the Iran-Contra affair first became public and Reagan began denying the arms for hostages deal, Shultz tried to convince the president that he had been "deceived and lied to” by those closest to him in the administration. In Shultz’s mind, Reagan truly believed at that time that, while there were arms sales, the president truly believed they were not being swapped for hostages. Given Reagan’s history as a detached executive, it seems likely that his advisors decided that “plausible deniability” was best and hid the scope of the operation from the president. In stark contrast to the decisive US victory in Grenada, the US intervention in Lebanon was perhaps the worst setback of Reagan’s presidency. After the May 17 Agreement, it seemed that the administration had scored another victory. The withdrawal of the PLO from Lebanon promised to end long-standing military and terrorist strikes across the border into Israel, and the establishment of a stable government in Lebanon could have severely undercut Soviet influence in the area. The bombing of a US Marine barracks, however, turned the both the public and Congress against a US presence quickly. Reagan was torn between his wish to preserve public faith in his administration. Finally, the decision was practically taken out of his hands as his closest advisors, with the exception of the Secretary of State, pressured him to get out of Lebanon. With the abrupt removal of US forces, the Lebanese army could not consolidate its control in face of the warring factions or even see to the removal of the Syrian army. In 1984, Syria established a puppet government in Beirut, but conflicting Israel and Syrian interests still kept the country in turmoil for almost a decade after that. In addition to direct military intervention, Reagan also put pressure on the Soviets by announcing increased defense spending, most notably through his promise to begin researching and developing a missile defense system. The idea, which was uncharacteristically introduced by Reagan himself, was encouraged by his advisors despite universal agreement that a missile defense would be enormously expensive, impractical, and unsuccessful. Unlike Reagan, who was excited and hopeful about the idea of shielding Americans from Soviet missiles, his security advisors saw it as a way to gain an advantage over the Soviets at the bargaining table because SDI could be abandoned in return for further arms reductions by the Soviets. The idea backfired, however, when Reagan refused to stop research on the system even when Gorbachev stated that the Soviet Union would not participate in any more nuclear disarmaments until SDI was abandoned. Gorbachev returned to the negotiating table after a physicist assured him that the defense system was an impossibility. As far as the actual implementation of the shield, SDI cannot be considered a total failure since Reagan’s failed initiative has spawned recent attempts to produce a working national missile defense. Still, it remains to be seen how successful these will prove. In combating the spread of Soviet influence, Reagan’s administration can be considered successful, but the Soviet empire's collapse was not entirely due to Reagan's policies. Although some of their efforts did interfere with the spread of communism, by the 1980s, the Soviet sphere was doomed. Internal weaknesses in the bureaucracy and economic woes that extended back 30 years ensured the eventual collapse of the communist government whatever the actions of Reagan’s administration. |
Evaluation
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