Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T18:52:49.350Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - US foreign policy under Reagan and Bush

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2010

By
Beth Fischer
Edited by
Melvyn P. Leffler  and
Odd Arne Westad
Melvyn P. Leffler
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
Odd Arne Westad
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Get access

Summary

What role did President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush play in ending the Cold War? Three distinct schools of thought have arisen in response to this question. The first school maintains that the United States triumphed in the Cold War by destroying its nemesis, the USSR. These “triumphalists” focus primarily on the Reagan years and contend that the administration brought about the end of the Cold War by hastening (even causing) the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this view, the Reagan administration was keenly aware of the fragile state of the USSR. Thus, it adopted a hardline policy to push its enemy toward collapse. This policy included an unprecedented military buildup, the introduction of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and tough rhetoric. Ultimately, the Reagan administration proved victorious: the Soviets could not keep pace with the administration’s military expenditures, nor could they match US technological advances. Consequently, the Kremlin was forced to surrender. Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, had no option other than to become more conciliatory toward Washington. The ultimate triumph came in 1991, however, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

A second school of thought turns this logic on its head. In this view, the Reagan administration’s hardline policies were an impediment to ending the Cold War. The president’s virulent anti-Communism, his belligerent rhetoric, SDI, and the military buildup combined to make it more difficult for Gorbachev to pursue improved relations with the West.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Cold War , pp. 267 - 288
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Martin, Revolution (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987).Google Scholar
Beschloss, Michael R. and Talbott, Strobe, At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1993).Google Scholar
Bush, George and Scowcroft, Brent, A World Transformed (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1998).Google Scholar
Cannon, Lou, “President Hails Japan as Partner,” Washington Post, November 11, 1983.
Coll, Steve, Ghost Wars: The Secret Wars of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin, 2004).Google Scholar
Deudney, Daniel and Ikenberry, G. John, “Who Won the Cold War?,” in Ikenberry, G. John (ed.), American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays, 2nd ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1996).Google Scholar
Eagleburger, Lawrence, “Review of US Relations with the Soviet Union,” February 1, 1983, American Foreign Policy: Current Documents 1983 (Washington, DC: US Department of State, 1984), 504.Google Scholar
Fischer, Benjamin B., A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare (Washington, DC: Study for the Center of Intelligence, 1997),Google Scholar
Fischer, Beth A., The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1997) –43.Google Scholar
FitzGerald, Frances, Way out there in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).Google Scholar
Gates, Robert, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Inside Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).Google Scholar
Gorbachev, Mikhail, Memoirs (London: Doubleday, 1996), esp..Google Scholar
Haig, Alexander, Caveat: Realism, Reagan, and Foreign Policy (New York: Macmillan, 1984).Google Scholar
Kaiser, Robert G., Why Gorbachev Happened: His Triumph, His Failure, and His Fall (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 11.Google Scholar
Kegley, , “How Did the Cold War Die? Principles for an Autopsy,” Mershon International Studies Review, 38 (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lettow, Paul, Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (New York: Random House, 2005).Google Scholar
Matlock, Jack F. Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev (New York: Random House, 2004).Google Scholar
Pipes, Richard, “Misinterpreting the Cold War,” Foreign Affairs, 74 (January/February 1995) –61;CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reagan, Ronald, Public Papers of the Presidents: Ronald Reagan, 1983, Book 1 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1984).Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald, “US Measures in Response to the Soviets’ ‘Korean Airline Massacre,’” September 5, 1983, American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1983.
Reagan, Ronald, “The US–Soviet Relationship,” Department of State Bulletin 84 (January 16, 1984);Google Scholar
Schweizer, Peter, Victory: The Reagan Administration’s Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Cold War (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994);Google Scholar
Shultz, George P., Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Scribner, 1993).Google Scholar
Skinner, Kiron, Anderson, Annelise, and Anderson, Martin, Reagan: In His Own Hand (New York: Free Press, 2001).Google Scholar
Weinberger, Caspar, Fighting for Peace (New York: Warner Books, 1990);Google Scholar
Westad, Odd Arne, “Reagan’s Anti-Revolutionary O.ensive in the Third World,” in Njølstad, Olav (ed.), The Last Decade of the Cold War (London: Frank Cass, 2004) –62,Google Scholar
Wohlforth, William C., Witnesses to the End of the Cold War (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 125–27.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×