“We Win, They Lose”: How Reagan’s Foreign Policy Brought Down the Soviet Union
The 1980s was a pivotal era in world history. After decades of America’s failed containment policies which strengthened and helped spread Communism across the globe, a change in direction was desperately needed. Ronald Reagan fundamentally shifted American foreign policy as president, which in turn, greatly influenced the collapse of the “evil empire” by the early nineties. Although the Reagan Administration did not live to see the collapse of Soviet Communism, Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. Reagan did not always have such strong opinions of the Soviet Union or of Communism itself. After relocating to Hollywood to pursue an acting career in the late 1930s, he considered joining the Communist Party. Indeed, many people saw the increasingly popular ideology as the antithesis to Nazism. However, for Reagan, this idea came crashing down on him after World War II as the Communists quickly and effectively penetrated many of Hollywood’s actor’s unions. In 1946, the various actors’ unions went on strike at the behest of the …show more content…
He influenced the fall of the Soviet Union by preventing the spread of Communism to other parts of the world. His administration prevented the spread of Communism through what is now known as the Reagan Doctrine. Leonid Brezhnev, a man who molded himself in the shadow of Stalin and was responsible for the death of millions, ruled unchallenged in the Soviet Union. He also desired expansionist policies for the Soviet Union just as Stalin did. In fact, Brezhnev suggested that once a country became communist, any attempt to reverse that would fail, either through the people’s will or through military force. Known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, it went unopposed in the 1970s. The longer that the doctrine went unopposed, the more the West believed it to be
The 1980s was a pivotal era in world history. After decades of America’s failed containment policies which strengthened and helped spread Communism across the globe, a change in direction was desperately needed. Ronald Reagan fundamentally shifted American foreign policy as president, which in turn, greatly influenced the collapse of the “evil empire” by the early nineties. Although the Reagan Administration did not live to see the collapse of Soviet Communism, Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. Reagan did not always have such strong opinions of the Soviet Union or of Communism itself. After relocating to Hollywood to pursue an acting career in the late 1930s, he considered joining the Communist Party. Indeed, many people saw the increasingly popular ideology as the antithesis to Nazism. However, for Reagan, this idea came crashing down on him after World War II as the Communists quickly and effectively penetrated many of Hollywood’s actor’s unions. In 1946, the various actors’ unions went on strike at the behest of the …show more content…
He influenced the fall of the Soviet Union by preventing the spread of Communism to other parts of the world. His administration prevented the spread of Communism through what is now known as the Reagan Doctrine. Leonid Brezhnev, a man who molded himself in the shadow of Stalin and was responsible for the death of millions, ruled unchallenged in the Soviet Union. He also desired expansionist policies for the Soviet Union just as Stalin did. In fact, Brezhnev suggested that once a country became communist, any attempt to reverse that would fail, either through the people’s will or through military force. Known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, it went unopposed in the 1970s. The longer that the doctrine went unopposed, the more the West believed it to be