Ronald Reagans Policy Towards The Soviet Union Research Paper

Ronald Reagans Policy Towards The Soviet Union - Research Paper Example Regarding the United States’ confrontation against the communist expansion, the Reagan Government’s role was of more of strategic than of ‘muscular’, an adjective that easily could characterize a major part of the US policy towards the USSR during the earlier US presidencies. Indeed military enforcement served as a part of Reagan’s Doctrine, but not the whole of it. Either being compelled by the contemporary socio-economic condition of the country or learning the best part of the lesson from the history of the United States’ military involvement in the Vietnam War and Korean War Reagan chose an effective strategic course of being diplomatic and tactical, meanwhile keeping the United States’ superior military image intact. Controversy about Reagan’s Leftist Trend Indeed the ‘simplistic’, ‘sectarian’, ‘dangerous’, and even ‘primitive’, as Anthony Lewis a columnist of The New York Times once called, Reagan also earned the title â€Å"the communist in disguise† because of his strategic approach to Communism (Schweizer, 1994, p. 47). D’Souza (2003) notes, â€Å"Reagan had a much more sophisticated understanding of communism than either the hawks or the doves†. ... Reagan was the President of the Screen Actors’ Guild and was commonly known as â€Å"Red Ronnie.† (p. 3). Necessarily his comprehensible knowledge of the nature of communism and the lessons learned from the United States’ involvement in the Cold War during his predecessors shaped the main line of policy towards the communist Soviet Union. That is, the main line of his policy towards the USSR was to confront, to contain, to roll back Soviet blocks and finally to let the â€Å"evil empire† under its own weight while saving and restoring the country’s military superiority intact. Necessarily such stance was reflected in Reagan’s policy towards the Soviet Union. Being resolute to reinstate the United States’ pride and superiority in the world, he decided that America should be more active and assertive in confronting Communism and in providing active support to the friendly governments. Reagan’s rhetoric and his government’s military expenditure policies were directed to support this goal. Yet ultimately his foreign policy towards the USSR –though seemed to be more belligerent than that of the two earlier presidents- was â€Å"considerably more cautious than his sometimes bellicose statements suggested† (Profiles of US Presidents, n.d.). Reagan’s Dual Approaches to Communism and Reagan Doctrine Reagan’s policy towards the Soviet Union can significantly be marked as a dual approach in the sense that on one hand Reagan’s administration chose to provide both overt and covert support to anti-communist communities and guerrilla movements in order to â€Å"roll back† â€Å"Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America†.