The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy

Contemporary International Problems

The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy
We are going to consider the Ronald Reagan doctrine that was used from 1981 to 1990. Reagan was the 40th leader of the United States. Reagan doctrine was an expansion of President Carter’s doctrine. The drive of the Reagan doctrine was to support the Afghan freedom fighters against the Soviet rule and terminate the occupation of the Soviets in Afghanistan. The importance of the Reagan Doctrine was to define the Americans interest and prevent the expansion of communism.
The impact of the Soviet Union in Eastern Asia
, Indies, and the Middle East was worrying to the American presidents. The Soviet invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Eve of 1979. Carter administration was hesitant in trying to aid the Afghanistan people (Diggins, 2007). The Americans thought the Soviet wanted to control the vast oil fields in the Middle East since the entire oil industry was controlled by the Strait of Hormuz. The Americans did not want to confront the Soviet Union like they did during the Vietnam War as it would be catastrophic. They were involved through the newly formed Afghan insurgents. The Reagan doctrine pledged aid to Afghan insurgents against the Soviet supporters (Lagon, 1994). Reagan Administration deduced that the Insurgents would not defeat the Soviet but would play a role in driving them out. The CIA trained the insurgents provided them with weaponry that were made from China. The U.S. wanted the Soviet to get out Afghanistan but did not want to be directly involved.
Explain the diplomatic Doctrine the president followed, with reference to specific actions or events that occurred: Reagan Doctrine is seen as an innovation by some political analyst. The scope of Reagan Doctrine was both narrower and broader than the main Cold War Doctrines of the U.S. containment. The doctrine also served in Central America. Apart from Afghanistan and Nicaragua, the doctrine was also used in Cambodia and Angola. The Reagan doctrine supported the insurgents as proxies of the U.S. particularly in Afghanistan; it destabilized the pro-soviet regimes through the process of consolidating totalitarian control over their nations. The Reagan doctrine key move was implemented in 1986. It was objected by many advisers to the president. Reagan administration armed the mujahideen with a stinger and anti-aircraft missiles. Through this, they had a big advantage over the Soviet Union as they would bring down the Russian MIG fighter jets. 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 (Kirkpatrick, Cline, Heritage Foundation (Washington, & Renaissance, 1985).
Describe the impacts of these diplomatic efforts for the U.S. and other countries: The Reagan Doctrine was used in four different countries. It was implemented in a number of ways, depending on the local situations. It engaged economic, political, military, and psychological warfare to aid the indigenous anti-communist influences (Pontuso, 2011). The Doctrine agenda was to hide the Americans involvement. The U.S. had support from the non-regional allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who provided finances and arms. The mujahideen were provided with rockets and anti-aircraft gun manufactured by the Chinese (Yousaf & Adkin, 1992). Iran also provided their support in fear of Soviet invasion. Their support was through finances. The most significant help was from Pakistan as they gave out their regions. Therefore, the United States was supported by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, and other Persian Gulf countries.

The Benefits and drawbacks of the Reagan Doctrine: The main advantage of the Reagan doctrine was the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was the best and only global known advantage of Reagan Doctrine. The Demise of the Soviet Union gave the United States an advantage in the military technology market. The Soviet power is said to have collapsed amid 1989 and 1991. It is said that Reagan had faith that the Soviet Union would collapse and that communism would be defeated. However, Reagan Doctrine had its disadvantages. One of the disadvantages was the policies of the support of the mujahideen in Afghanistan that created the grounds for “blowbacks” where people armed by the U.S. did not share similar interests apart from resisting the Soviet Union. Another disadvantage would be US support for both sides, but especially Iraq, in the Iran-Iraq war.  Us envoy Donald Rumsfeld and the United States Vice President Bush supported Saddam Hussein by supplying him with whatever he wanted so that he could fight the Kurds, Iranians, and other enemies. Saddam Hussein later on became an enemy of the United States and had to be removed from power.
President Reagan was recognized by the most world leaders for his hard line rhetoric talents. He used his doctrine t disable the Soviet economy by increasing military spending through US economy. The sudden rise in the arms was too tough for the overestimated Soviets to keep up. Though, the Reagan Doctrines successful application to Afghanistan was a grave aspect at the end of the Soviet Union, it surely wasn’t the only influence. What was unforeseen by the successful Reagan Doctrine is that the insurgents and their influencing leaders would end up being the  Americans enemy to causing them lots of problems.

References
Kirkpatrick, J. J., Cline, R. S., Heritage Foundation (Washington, D., & Renaissance, F. f. (1985). The Reagan Doctrine and U.S. foreign policy. Washington: Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation: Fund for an American Renaissance.
Lagon, M. P. (1994). The Reagan doctrine: sources of American conduct in the Cold War's last chapter. Missouri: Westport, Conn. : Praeger.
Pontuso, J. (2011, July 7). Free Markets & Civil Society. Retrieved from http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com: http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=713&theme=frmar&loc=b
Yousaf, M., & Adkin, M. (1992). The bear trap: Afghanistan's Untold Story. London: London: L. Cooper.