The 80's: A Controversial Decade In American History

One of President Reagan’s legacies was he was able to lower inflation as well as lowering the marginal income tax rate. These initiatives helped America grow as a super power. Known as the President which brought down the Soviet Union, President Reagan met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to solve the conflict between the nations. These meetings helped prevent World

Ronald Reagan was an influential leader due to his actions in the Cold War, his stance on international peace, and his impact on the US economy. Between 1981 and 1989, Ronald Reagan was a major force in creating a peaceful end to the Cold War. The military spending policies of the Reagan-Bush years forced the Soviets to the brink of economic collapse (Jim Woods). This was beneficial to ending the Cold War because the Soviets could not afford to move resources, Nuclear Missiles, into firing positions.

Reagan started again to spend most of the federal budget in weapon. However, after the leader of Soviets changed, Reagan understood that his popularity is declining. Therefore, he called the Soviet Union for a friendlier relationship and a new cooperative system. Both leaders of United States and Soviet Union agreed with each other principles and this marked the end of the Cold War that lasted 45 years. After Cold War ended, United States was leaded by Reagan’s vice president, George Herbert Walker Bush.

Kennedy took a different, more violent approach in confining, and overall stopping the spread of communism. Truman said in his University of Washington Speech that money would be sent to any country that needed financial support in combating communism (Kennedy). In addition to this, he had the same views for military aid. His mission was to support any country fighting communism with the proper weapons if the Soviet Union were to attack (Kennedy). The biggest contrast between Kennedy and the other two presidents was that Kennedy was not afraid of war.

Despite his popularity in the US as “The Man Who Beat Communism”, Reagan’s presidency during the 1980s was only a sidekick to Gorbachev in the efforts to end the Cold War. Reagan’s actions against the USSR did not scare the nation into reforms, but Gorbachev’s impact in the Cold War, reforming the Soviet Union and oversight of communism’s peaceful transition into democracy during the late 80s overshadows Reagan’s seemingly token actions, portraying clearly that the only man which can hold the title of the “Man Who Ended the Cold War” with any credibility is Mikhail Gorbachev. The claim that Reagan’s increasing actions against communism and the USSR directly led to the appointment of reformist Mikhail Gorbachev to the post of General Secretary

The Iran Hostage Crisis was by far one of the largest fallbacks of the Carter Presidency. Ronald Reagan has to clean up Jimmy Carter’s mess in many ways, just one of these being the economic troubles that were facing The United States. At this time the citizens of the United States of America need a leader who is confident and has the ability to put effective plans in place to aid in rebounding the economy and the country as a

The Berlin Wall falls – the symbolic end of communism in Europe The reunification of Germany was the ultimate cause of collapse of the Soviet control over Eastern Europe. Prior to 1990, the Berlin Wall created the divide between the East Bloc and the West Bloc. It was built around West Berlin to stop East Germans fleeing the Communist State. The wall was also viewed as a protective shell around East Berlin while the west presented it as a prison wall.

Concluding the defeat of the Soviet Union Reagan made a speech in Berlin about the Berlin Wall and he challenged them to take down Berlin Wall.

Many people were against the amount of power it gave to the government. In his speech, the president talks about this saying, “I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” Here the president was asking for executive power to fight the Great Depression. He wanted power to regulate things like prices, and production in factories and farming. Some believed that too much government involvement in the economy was a step towards communism.

Khrushchev closed the borders and the construction of the Berlin wall began by the East side of Germany. The wall was the symbol of the Cold War and it caused a crisis in Soviet and U.S. relationship. According to the World War Two, Germany was splited into four parts, which were : Soviet Union, Britain, America and France. The URSS took control over eastern Germany and US, France and Britain over western Germany.

Instantly after Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 (p6-7) many of the influential policy makers suspended and then canceled the

The people in all of those areas were affected. For United States president, John F. Kennedy, the U.S credibility was at stake. A failure in Berlin could weaken the influence of America in West Germany, the balance of powers in Europe. To get rid of the Berlin Wall two United States presidents gave speeches in Berlin. John F. Kennedy being the first to give his speech in 1963.

(Web article from Time) He brought down the budget and told the soviets no more. (Web article from History.com) Ronald Reagan brought the conservative way of thinking back into government. (The Reagan Way, p. 56)

The Berlin wall was a wall put up after World War II by the allied powers to separate East Berlin and West Berlin. The United States ruled West Berlin while the Soviet Union ruled East Berlin. The authors of the article, “ 25 Years on: How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Changed the World”, said, “ Even though the U.S.S.R. ‘s final collapse came two years later, the fall of the wall that separated West from East Berlin more than any other single moment symbolizes the end of the Cold War”( ). After World War II, a new war started: The Cold War. It was a large arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States that ultimately ended by the Soviet Union disbanding.

Pg.3 Stalin believed this was a scheme the U.S. was using to conquer Europe and would not allow Eastern Europe to utilize the plan. “The economic recovery of Western Europe under the Marshall Plan furthered the ideological divide between the United States and the Soviet Union” (725). The U.S. was successful in enhancing Western Europe’s expansion declaring it as an economic success of the Cold War. International trade for the U.S. was profitable as Western Europe spent most of their funds in the U.S. on several resources.