The Reagan Doctrine to End Communism

The Reagan Doctrine was the foreign policy implemented by US President Ronald Reagan throughout his two terms, with the aim of eradicating communism and ending the Cold War. This doctrine included diplomatic actions and direct support for armed groups from several countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa that were fighting against communism.

Historical context: the advance of communism and the Cold War

In the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, great changes took place in the world, both socially and politically, economically and ideologically, as a result of workers’ revolutions, world wars and other social conflicts. In the midst of this transformation, some political ideologies that had a great impact on the world, mainly capitalism, socialism and communism, gained greater importance. Different states supported these political and economic systems and some became referents for them.

This is the case of the United States, which emerged as the model of capitalism, an economic and social system that considers capital as a generator of wealth and promotes and defends private ownership of the means of production and the distribution of resources through market. 

In socialism, on the other hand, the formation of an egalitarian society is sought, where the institutions and the State have a more prominent role, directing and controlling all aspects of the economic and political system, as well as society and its organization, the media of production, so that the private sector of a country practically disappears. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the first state to define itself as socialist and, therefore, became the benchmark for this system.

Although at first the concepts of socialism and communism were used as synonyms, in reality communism is considered as a more extreme and less flexible version of the socialist system. In communism, the State is the only one that has control of the means of production, private initiative, politics and the country’s economy. Likewise, communism rejects capitalist models and seeks to eradicate them. 

By becoming a superpower after World War II, the Soviet Union and its economic and political model clearly became a threat to capitalism, which was gaining a foothold in the United States and Western Europe.

The Cold War

Beginning in 1945, the tension between these superpowers began the period known as the Cold War. This was a political, economic, ideological, social, and military confrontation between the United States and its Western allies and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its Eastern European allies, known as the “Eastern Bloc.” The Soviet Union was the first socialist state and later became a model state that other countries tried to replicate. Both states competed to expand their control in the world and establish their respective political systems in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

In 1949, the United States created the NATO military alliance to limit the influence of the Soviet Union in Europe. In this period there were different conflicts that caused instability in the governments of several countries and opened the doors to communism. Some of these events were the creation of the Warsaw Pact, in 1955; the blockade of Berlin, from 1948 to 1949; the second stage of the Chinese civil war from 1946 to 1949; the Korean War from 1950 to 1953; the Sinai war in 1956; the Berlin crisis in 1961 and the October Crisis (of the missiles) in Cuba, in 1962.

During the Cold War there was a constant ideological, political and sometimes military struggle between the two superpowers. However, this period also saw the development of new policies and important agreements and alliances between the United States and the Soviet Union, such as treaties to reduce nuclear arms, cooperation for space exploration, and the Olympic Games and scientific research. 

Background to the Reagan Doctrine

Pre-Reagan governments had implemented a foreign policy of “containment” of communism, to prevent its spread in Europe. The 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, established this type of policy in the late 1940s. His successor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, implemented a policy aimed at reversing the influence of the Soviet Union. , but from a mainly diplomatic approach.

Something similar happened during the government of President Kennedy, who was reluctant to act, which allowed the establishment of communist groups in the Caribbean.

The tension between the United States and the Soviet Union had been increasing, especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis or the October War in Cuba in 1962. The United States governments continued with the policy of containment and covert support for certain groups that They fought against communism.

On coming to power, President Reagan took a more direct stance. In 1983, he publicly stated that US policy toward the Soviet Union would be to contain and reverse its expansion and openly support initiatives against communism.

The Ronald Reagan administration

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was the 40th President of the United States. He came from a humble family in Illinois and began his career in entertainment, first as a radio sportscaster and later as an actor.

Years later, he entered politics and became one of the benchmarks of American conservatism, a political movement that sees the State as a protector of traditions and values. Already then, Reagan was against communism. This was also evident between the years 1967 and 1975, when he was Governor of California.

His speeches, his experience as a communicator and his personal appeal allowed him to gain great popularity. In 1980 he became the Republican nominee for president and a year later he won the presidential election, defeating his predecessor, Jimmy Carter. In 1984 he was re-elected and began his second term as president. 

Reagan ruled the United States until the year 1989. At 69 and about to turn 70, he was the oldest president of the United States until 2017, when Donald Trump, 70, became president. 

Reagan carried out some economic reforms such as ” Reaganomics “, but he was best known for his international diplomatic and military policies, such as the controversial Reagan Doctrine.

What was the Reagan Doctrine

The Reagan Doctrine was the foreign policy implemented by the United States government under Ronald Reagan against communism promoted by the Soviet Union, whom many saw as a role model. It basically focused on implementing a dual policy: on the one hand, exercising atomic diplomacy, which consisted of threatening nuclear war to achieve political and diplomatic objectives; and on the other hand, supporting anti-communist movements in different parts of the world to prevent the spread of communism, eradicate it and end the Cold War.

The Reagan Doctrine was based on actively “rolling back” growing communist influence in some countries in Central America, Asia, and Africa. Because of this, this doctrine differed from that of its predecessors, which until then had applied a “containment” policy.

Implementation of the Reagan Doctrine

The Reagan Doctrine began to be implemented in Reagan’s first term. This policy was a more proactive action against the influence of the Soviet Union and meant the intensification of political, economic and military confrontations in the framework of the Cold War.

In implementing the Reagan Doctrine, the United States used all available resources: the CIA, the US Navy, the Marine Corps, local troops in the countries where the interventions took place, naval blockades, embargoes, and diplomatic coercion.

anti-communist speeches

In addition to political and military measures, the Reagan Doctrine included several speeches by the president, which highlighted him as an excellent communicator and allowed the doctrine to achieve great popularity and diffusion at some crucial moments.

In fact, Reagan’s speeches are considered to have been another strategy for the practical implementation of the Reagan Doctrine. In the strong speeches of the president of the United States, he accused the Soviet Union and stressed the need to end communism:

• In his first press conference as president, Reagan questioned the legitimacy of the Soviet government. In 1983, in another of his most high-profile speeches, he denounced the Soviet Union, describing it as “the evil empire” and “the evil center of the modern world.” He also called the war against communism a fight between “good and evil” and urged NATO to deploy nuclear missiles in Western Europe to counter the missile threat from the Soviet Union, which was establishing itself in Europe. Oriental. In addition, Reagan publicly supported anti-communist movements around the world. The Soviets responded to his speech by claiming that the Reagan administration had a “quarrelsome, bellicose, lunatic anti-communist” vision. 
• In various speeches, Reagan praised and defined anti-communist movements as “freedom fighters.”
• In another of his memorable speeches in 1983, Reagan proposed a missile defense system called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). This speech and the mentioned project received the name of Star Wars, “the war of the galaxies”, since it included space weapons with lasers and subatomic particles, in the best style of the extraordinary cinematographic saga.
• In 1985, Reagan gave a speech calling on American citizens to form a State of the Union to confront the Soviet Union and communism. He also noted that “liberty […] is the universal right of all God’s children” and that the United States’ “mission” was to defend it.
• Near the end of his term, in 1987, Reagan gave another landmark speech at Moscow State University in West Berlin, standing under a bust of Lenin. There he appealed to Mikhail Gorbachev and urged him to tear down the Berlin Wall, which since 1961 divided Germany into a capitalist and a communist part.

Interventions in other countries

The Reagan Doctrine was characterized by the increase in the intervention of the United States in other countries, mainly in the Third World. Most of these countries were going through periods of transition and instability after popular revolutions. Some early examples of the foreign policy application of the Reagan Doctrine were:

• Military intervention in Lebanon. Following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the United States sent 800 Marines to join international forces tasked with overseeing the evacuation of Palestinian guerrillas.
• Military intervention on the island of Grenada, located in the Caribbean, in 1983. After the assassination and overthrow of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, a new socialist regime arose in Grenada, financed by the Soviet Union and Cuba. The United States sent its army to Grenada to fight Cuban troops and prevent the establishment of a communist government. 
• During the Reagan administration, the United States supported the UNITA group, which was fighting against the Movimiento Popular de Liberación de Angola government, during the Angolan Civil War that began in 1975 and lasted until 2002.

Other Examples of the Reagan Doctrine

In Reagan’s second term, his foreign policy was reinforced under this doctrine. The most prominent examples from this period were:

• The bombing of Libya: in 1986, the United States carried out the operation “Eldorado Canyon” sending its armed forces to Libya. There, the US military bombed terrorist training centers and Libyan military bases.
• Iran-Contra scandal: Although quite controversial, the Reagan Doctrine turned out to be effective in achieving the objectives that the United States had proposed. However, between the years 1985 and 1986, this country carried out several illegal actions, which were prohibited by the US Senate. This subsequently became known as the Iran-Contra scandal, or Irangate . During the Reagan administration, the United States sold military weapons to Iran, despite the fact that Iran was embargoed by the United States and was supposedly unable to buy weapons. In addition, the United States contributed to the financing of Nicaraguan armed groups, called “Contras”, that were fighting against the official government of Nicaragua that had resulted from the Sandinista Revolution of 1979. 
• The United States supported authoritarian governments in El Salvador and Guatemala and used Honduras as a base to train the Nicaraguan Contras.

Other examples of the implementation of the Reagan Doctrine were:

• Support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan: From 1978 to 1989, during the Jimmy Carter presidency and with greater intensity during the Reagan administration, the United States financed and supported the jihad or holy war of the armed groups in Afghanistan, known as the mujahideen. In 1978 a revolution had taken place in this Asian country and a socialist government was taking hold. In order to threaten the southern border of the Soviet Union and prevent communism from gaining strength in this region, CIA agents recruited jihadists, supplied weapons and financed their operations. The events of the beginning of the 21st century, in which the territory of the United States was the scene of tremendous attacks by jihadists, demonstrated the enormous mistake of supporting Afghan religious extremists.
• Reagan negotiated with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to reach an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union to restrict the use of nuclear weapons. This culminated in the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987 and its subsequent ratification by the US Congress in 1988.

The influence of this doctrine was such that it continued to be implemented even in the government of his successor, George HW Bush, until 1991, when the Cold War ended.

Consequences of the Reagan Doctrine

The Reagan Doctrine was seen as an interference by the United States in the national affairs of the third world countries that it was supposedly supporting to fight communism.

Most historians agree that the Reagan Doctrine was key to halting the advance of communism, ending the Cold War, and dissolving the Soviet Union in 1991.

For Reagan’s supporters, the doctrine was a success in reversing the spread of communism and Soviet influence. In Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, the United States helped establish governments more favorable to its foreign policy. In Afghanistan, the mujahideen managed to force the Soviet armed forces to withdraw, although the country became one of the centers of global jihadist terrorism. 

However, the intervention of the United States in other states with the excuse of applying the Reagan Doctrine also caused many political and diplomatic problems between these countries. Likewise, support for certain movements caused great stability in the intervened regions, something that continued until several years later with a series of authoritarian governments, coups d’état and transitional governments, a process that, in some cases, continues to occur in the present.

Despite everything, and taking into account the objective of the Reagan Doctrine, it can be said that it did turn out to be effective for the United States, since it counteracted the efforts of the Soviet Union to expand its political system and influence and contributed to its dissolution. 

In the 1980s, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev carried out different political reforms to avoid it, but finally, the anti-communist policies, the economic problems and internal and external conflicts of the Soviet Union led to its fall in 1991. With the defeat of the Union Soviet Union and communism, the Cold War also ended, and the United States established itself as a great world power. 

Sources

• Sánchez Galán, J. Difference between socialism and communism . Economipedia. Available here .
• Britannica. Relations with the Soviet Union of Ronald Reagan . Available here .
• MCamerican president. President Ronald Reagan – “Evil Empire” Speech . Youtube. Available here .
• Reagan Foundation. National Security: President Reagans Address on Defense and National Security 3/23/83 . Youtube. Available here .