The topic which I am going to write about is “Presidents and Their Doctrines” in Roskin. I have selected Reagan for this purpose.
The Reagan Doctrine:
Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. His famous doctrine came in to effect in 1981 and lasted till 1989 which played a significant key role for the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Reagan doctrine was the expansion of his predecessor President Carter’s doctrine. An article by Charles Krauthammer in NY Times magazine states “The Reagan Doctrine proclaims overt and unashamed American support for anti-Communist revolution” (Krauthammer, 1985). As it proclaimed, the Reagan Doctrine delivered
what it promised, support of the Afghan freedom fighters (mujahedeen) to over throw Soviet Regime and end the illegal occupation of Soviets in Afghanistan. The Reagan Doctrine was very important because it defined American interests around the globe and its determination of preventing communism from expanding.
Rapid overexpansion of the Soviet Union in East Asia, Indies and Middle East was a worry to all U.S. presidents during the cold war. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began on the eve of 1979 Christmas. As stated by John Patrick Diggins “The carter administration had little hesitation in coming to the aid of Afghanistan after the invasion” (Diggins, 2007). The U.S. was under the impression that the initial interest of the Soviet Union would eventually become Middle East and its valuable oil fields. Finally, after communist influence over Middle East the Soviets then would try to capture the Strait of Hormuz to control the entire oil industry. After Vietnam direct involvement would have been a lethal mistake, especially against a super power like the Soviet Union. Although, once the Soviet’s collapsed the Americans realized how over exaggerated their power was, the Americans chose involvement through newly established Afghan insurgents. According to Paul Lagon, “the Reagan Doctrine, as a specific case, pledged aid to insurgents battling against the pro-Soviets” (Lagon, 1994). Reagan administration believed that the resistance might drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan, but the insurgents defeating the Soviets were never an option. The Mujahedeen were motivated by putting a bounty on the head of every Soviet soldier killed. As stated by Diggins “Administration told Henry Hart, the CIA officer in Islamabad, here is a bag of money, go raise hell. Kill Soviets and get the insurgents to do whatever you need them to do” (Diggins, 2007). The CIA offered grounds for training the insurgents in Pakistan. Weaponry supplied to the insurgents were Chinese knock offs. The U.S. did not want fingers pointed at if U.S. made weapons were captured by the Soviets. The qualities of the weapons were questioned, but the Reagan administration assured the insurgents that enough weapons were delivered to fight the communist. All the U.S. had to do was give the insurgents help, only more if it and they would fight America’s war against the Soviets. This served the idea of making the Soviets pay in blood for the devastating results in Vietnam, This brilliant foreign policy, as known as the Reagan Doctrine, was a master piece of Reagan and his administration.
Explicate the diplomatic doctrine the president followed, with reference to specific actions or events that occurred:
Some political analysts see the Reagan Doctrine as an innovation. Paul Lagon stated that “The scope of the Reagan Doctrine was both broader and narrower than the predominant Cold War political doctrine of the United States, containment” (Lagon, 1994). The Reagan Doctrine served in Central America as well. Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua was overthrown by the revolutionary front in 1979. Besides Afghanistan and Nicaragua, The Doctrine also showed its effects in Angola and Cambodia as well. In all four countries the Reagan Doctrine administrators chose to assist the insurgents as proxies for the United States. The assistance of the insurgencies, especially in Afghanistan, destabilized the pro-Soviet regimes in the process of consolidating totalitarian control over their countries. The first key element of the Reagan Doctrine was the balance of power. During the Cold War Era the US and the Soviets often clashed over Capitalism influence on the world against Communist influence. Soviet hegemony over east Europe had made it clear to the United States that its biggest threat was Soviet Union and enemy was communism. Beyond the Central and Eastern European countries each superpower had allies in remote areas of the globe. Most of these peripheral nations favored the Communist idea of governance. As reported by Lagon “the relative balance in these Third World client states favored the Soviets in the latter of the 1970’s and 80’s” (Lagon, 1994). Therefore, Doctrines that began with Trumann up until the Reagan Doctrine had major common ground of stopping the expansion of communism, in essence, the Soviet Union. The Reagan Doctrine’s key move came into effect in 1986, over the objections of many advisers, the Reagan administration decided to arm the mujahedeen with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. The resistance gained tremendous amount of advantage against the Soviet super power. American made stingers cost only $60 thousand and easily brought down a $20 million Russian MIG fighter jets. Losing the air strike advantage the Russians were held back on the ground operations by CIA trained leaders of the insurgents. According to Diggins “Massoud, nick named the Lion of Panjshir; caused heavy losses to the Soviets in the valley of death as known as Panjshir, a remote region with a small passage into Afghanistan through Russia” (Diggins, 2007). Panjshir was the only reliable overland route for supple into Kabul from USSR. CIA trained Ahmad Shah Masoud repeatedly destroyed Russian Tanks, captured convoys and supplied his men with seized weapons. Another legendary figure was Osama Bin Laden. Diggins states “Bin Laden was the son of an enormously rich Saudi family, was the legend ‘heaven sent’ man for the mujahedeen” (Diggins, 2007). He was then regarded as a humanitarian and one of the authentic freedom fighters. Trained by the USA, supplied by the Saudis and again the US, Bin Laden later planned and organized attacks on the U.S. Neither Reagan nor anyone from his administration would’ve known that he would become the most wanted and hated enemy of the U.S. decades later. The Reagan Doctrine played a vital role in the demise of Soviet Union, and the Stinger anti-aircraft missiles became the symbol of America’s historic success in defeating the “evil empire”, the Soviet Union.
Describe the effects of these diplomatic efforts for the U.S. and other countries:
The Reagan Doctrine was implemented in four countries in varied regions of world. James Pontuso states that “The Reagan Doctrine was implemented in a number of ways, depending on local conditions. It employed political, economic, military and psychological warfare in support of indigenous anti-communist forces” (Pontuso, 2011). The Doctrine’s hidden agenda was to prevent direct intervention of the US forces and use proxies as the fighters for U.S.’s interest. However, Afghanistan played the main role in the Reagan Doctrine. Diggins highlights that Ronald Reagan often referred to Afghanistan as the “theater of the cold war” (Diggins, 2007). U.S. had supports from non-regional allies. In support of president Reagans doctrine countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia supported the U.S. in Afghanistan and provided financial and arms assistance. Adkin and Yousaf states that “the mujahedeen were supplied with Chinese weapons, particularly rockets and antiaircraft guns” (Adkin & Yousaf, 1992). In fear of Soviet invasion Iran also provided assistance to the U.S. in applying the Reagan Doctrine in Afghanistan, though it was more of a financial support. According to Adkin and Yousaf, “the most important support was provided by Pakistan. Direct control and assistance to the region was provided.” (Adkin & Yousaf, 1992). Therefore, U.S. had supports from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and other Persian Gulf States.
The Advantages and disadvantages of the Reagan Doctrine:
In conclusion, President Ronald Reagan and his famous Reagan Doctrine are most well-known for his dealings on US foreign diplomacy, especially with the Soviet Union. Notably, the major advantage of the Reagan Doctrine was the collapse of the Soviet Union, which eventually became the best and only globally known advantage of the Reagan Doctrine. Demise of the Soviets gave the US an enormous gains and advantage in the military technology industry. Roskin & Berry highlights that “when Soviet power collapsed between 1989 and 1991, we saw that we had overestimated Soviet strength for decades” (Roskin & Berry). We had no idea that our technology was far more advanced than the Soviets. The Reagan Doctrine shows that Reagan may have been one of the few people living in the U. S. in the early 80s who actually believed that communism would collapse. However, as well as having advantages the Reagan Doctrine also had disadvantages. First disadvantage is that policies such as our support of the mujahedeen in Afghanistan created grounds for "blowback" as people armed by the United States did not necessarily share the interests of the United States beyond resisting Soviet. Another example would be US support for both sides, but especially Iraq, in the Iran-Iraq war. As stated by John Patrick Diggins “Reagan’s special envoy to Iraq was Donald Rumsfeld, who joined Vice President Bush in embracing Saddam Hussein and secretly supplying the dictator with whatever he asked for in his fight against the Kurds, Iranians and other opponents” (Diggins, 2007) Just like Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein became an enemy as well. President Reagan was recognized by the major leaders of the world for his hard line rhetoric skills. He used his doctrine to cripple the Soviet economy by increasing military spending through US economy. Sudden rise in the arms was too tough for the overestimated Soviets to keep up. Although, the Reagan Doctrines successful application to Afghanistan was a critical factor to the demise of the Soviet Union, it certainly wasn’t the only factor. What was unforeseen by the successful Reagan Doctrine is that the insurgents and their influencing leaders like Osama Bin Laden would end up being the enemy to cause the most dramatic event in the history of the United States of America.
REFERENCES
Adkin, M., & Yousaf, M. (1992). The Bear Trap (Afghanistan’s Untold Story). Lahore, Pakistan: Jang Publishers.
Diggins, J. P. (2007). Ronald Reagan. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. DOI: www.wwnorton.com (Mark Adkin, 1992)
Krauthammer, C. (1985, April 01). The Reagan doctrine. Time Magazine,
Lagon, M. P. (1994). The Reagan doctrine sources of American conduct in the cold war's last chapter. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Pontuso, J. (2011, July 01). Reagan doctrine. Retrieved from
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=713&theme=frmar&loc=b
Roskin, M., & Berry, N. (2010). Ir : the new world of international relations. (8th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc
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