{"id":1913,"date":"2021-08-02T03:16:07","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T03:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=1913"},"modified":"2022-09-28T03:15:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T03:15:05","slug":"reagan-and-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/chapter\/reagan-and-foreign-policy\/","title":{"raw":"Reagan and Foreign Policy in the 1980s","rendered":"Reagan and Foreign Policy in the 1980s"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Discuss the Reagan Doctrine and its effects on U.S. foreign policy during Ronald Reagan's presidency<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm35888848\">Ronald Reagan wished to restore American stature in the world. He entered the White House a \u201ccold warrior\u201d and referred to the Soviet Union in a 1983 speech as an \u201cevil empire.\u201d He was dedicated to upholding even authoritarian governments in foreign countries to keep them safe from Soviet influence, and desperate to put to rest Vietnam Syndrome, the reluctance to use military force in foreign countries for fear of embarrassing defeat, which had influenced U.S. foreign policy since the mid-1970s.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Foreign Policy Before Reagan's Presidency<\/h2>\r\nReagan\u2019s first election came at a time when many Americans feared their country was in an irreversible decline. American forces withdrew in disarray from South Vietnam in 1975. The United States returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama in 1978, despite protests from conservatives. Pro-American dictators were toppled in Iran and Nicaragua in 1979. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan that same year, leading conservatives to warn about American weakness in the face of Soviet expansion. Reagan spoke to fears of decline and warned, in 1976, that \u201cthis nation has become Number Two in a world where it is dangerous\u2014if not fatal\u2014to be second best.\"[footnote]Laura Kalman, Right Star Rising: A New Politics, 1974\u20131980 (New York: Norton, 2010), 166\u2013167.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_8339\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1427\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/25043147\/Cold_War_Map_1980.png\"><img class=\"wp-image-8339 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/25043147\/Cold_War_Map_1980.png\" alt=\"World map showing Cold War nations and areas allied with the U.S. (in blue) and those allied with the Soviet Union (in red). Panama, Nicaragua, Grenada, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Vietnam are shown.\" width=\"1427\" height=\"628\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. This world map shows Cold War alliances in 1980 and highlights many of the countries discussed on this page.[\/caption]\r\n<h2>Reagan's Foreign Policy<\/h2>\r\nThe conservative movement gained ground on gender and sexual politics, but it captured the entire battlefield of American foreign policy in the 1980s, at least for a time. Ronald Reagan entered office as a committed Cold Warrior. He held the Soviet Union in contempt, denouncing it in a 1983 speech as an \u201cevil empire.\u201d\u00a0And he never doubted that the Soviet Union would end up \u201con the ash heap of history,\u201d as he said in a 1982 speech to the British Parliament.[footnote]Lou Cannon, \u201cPresident Calls for \u2018Crusade\u2019: Reagan Proposes Plan to Counter Soviet Challenge,\u201d Washington Post, June 9, 1982, A1.[\/footnote]\r\n<h3>The Reagan Doctrine<\/h3>\r\nIndeed, Reagan believed it was the duty of the United States to speed the Soviet Union to its inevitable demise. His <strong>Reagan Doctrine<\/strong> declared that the United States would supply aid to anti-communist forces everywhere in the world.\u00a0To give this doctrine force, Reagan oversaw an enormous expansion in the defense budget. Federal spending on defense rose from $171 billion in 1981 to $229 billion in 1985, the highest level since the Vietnam War.\u00a0He described this as a policy of \u201cpeace through strength,\u201d a phrase that appealed to Americans who, during the 1970s, feared that the United States was losing its status as the world\u2019s most powerful nation. Yet the irony is that Reagan, for all his militarism, helped bring the Cold War to an end through negotiation, a tactic he had once scorned.\r\n<h2>The Middle East<\/h2>\r\nThe Reagan administration took a cautious approach in the Middle East, where its policy was determined by a mix of anticommunism and hostility toward the Islamic government of Iran. When Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, the United States supplied Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with military intelligence and business credits\u2014even after it became clear that Iraqi forces were using chemical weapons.\r\n\r\nReagan\u2019s greatest setback in the Middle East came in 1982, when, shortly after Israel invaded Lebanon, he dispatched Marines to the Lebanese city of Beirut to serve as a peacekeeping force. On October 23, 1983, a suicide bomber, working for Iranian-trained militants known as Hezbollah, killed 241 Marines stationed in Beirut. Congressional pressure and anger from the American public forced Reagan to recall the Marines from Lebanon in March 1984. Reagan\u2019s decision demonstrated that, for all his talk of restoring American power, he took a pragmatic approach to foreign policy. He was unwilling to risk another Vietnam by committing American troops to Lebanon.\r\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_31_03_Beirut\"><\/figure>\r\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_31_03_Beirut\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"585\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203437\/CNX_History_31_03_Beirut.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph (a) shows the bombed remains of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Photograph (b) shows the ruins of the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport.\" width=\"585\" height=\"210\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. The suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut (a) on April 18, 1983, marked the first of a number of attacks on U.S. targets in the region. Less than six months later, a truck bomb leveled the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport (b), part of a coordinated attack that killed 299 U.S and French members of the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon.[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<h3><span style=\"color: #077fab; font-size: 1.15em; font-weight: 600; text-align: initial; background-color: #ffffff;\">Latin America<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<h3>Grenada Invasion<\/h3>\r\nThe Reagan administration made Latin America a showcase for its newly assertive policies. Jimmy Carter had sought to promote human rights in the region, but Reagan and his advisors scrapped this approach and instead focused on fighting communism\u2014a term they applied to all Latin American left-wing movements. And so when communists with ties to Cuba overthrew the government of the Caribbean nation of Grenada in October 1983, Reagan dispatched the U.S. Marines to the island. Dubbed Operation Urgent Fury, the Grenada invasion overthrew the leftist\/communist government after less than a week of fighting. Despite the relatively minor nature of the mission, its success gave victory-hungry Americans something to cheer about after the military debacles of the previous two decades.\r\n\r\nGrenada was the only time Reagan deployed the American military in Latin America, but the United States also influenced the region by supporting right-wing, anticommunist movements there. From 1981 to 1990, the United States gave more than $4 billion to the government of El Salvador in a largely futile effort to defeat the guerrillas of the Farabundo Mart\u00ed National Liberation Front (FMLN).\u00a0Salvadoran security forces equipped with American weapons committed numerous atrocities, including the slaughter of almost one thousand civilians at the village of El Mozote in December 1981.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7093\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"766\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/10162432\/US_Army_Rangers_parachute_into_Grenada_during_Operation_Urgent_Fury.jpeg\"><img class=\"wp-image-7093 \" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/10162432\/US_Army_Rangers_parachute_into_Grenada_during_Operation_Urgent_Fury.jpeg\" alt=\"Photograph of parachuting paratroopers of Grenada.\" width=\"766\" height=\"588\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. invasion of Grenada, was broadly supported by the U.S. public. This photograph shows the deployment of U.S. Army Rangers into Grenada. Photograph, October 25, 1983[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<section data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h3>The Iran-Contra Affair<\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp200013520\">Neighboring Nicaragua was also governed by a largely Marxist-inspired group, the Sandinistas. This organization, led by Daniel Ortega, had overthrown the brutal, right-wing dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Reagan, however, overlooked the legitimate complaints of the Sandinistas and believed that their rule opened the region to Cuban and Soviet influence. A year into his presidency, convinced it was folly to allow the expansion of Soviet and Communist influence in Latin America, he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to equip and train a group of anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans known as the <span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">Contras<\/span> (<em data-effect=\"italics\">contrarevolucion\u00e1rios<\/em> or \u201ccounter-revolutionaries\u201d) to oust Ortega.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp113902496\">Reagan\u2019s desire to aid the Contras even after Congress ended its support led him, surprisingly, to Iran. In September 1980, Iraq had invaded neighboring Iran and, by 1982, had begun to gain the upper hand. The Iraqis needed weapons, and the Reagan administration, wishing to assist the enemy of its enemy, had agreed to provide Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with money, arms, and military intelligence. In 1983, however, the capture of Americans by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon had changed the president\u2019s plans (as mentioned above). In 1985, he authorized the sale of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in exchange for help retrieving three of the American hostages.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp112648928\">A year later, Reagan\u2019s National Security Council aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, found a way to sell weapons to Iran and secretly use the proceeds to support the Nicaraguan Contras\u2014in direct violation of a congressional ban on military aid to the anti-Communist guerillas in that Central American nation. Eventually the Senate became aware, and North and others were indicted on various charges, which were all dismissed, overturned on appeal, or granted presidential pardon. Reagan, known for delegating much authority to subordinates and unable to \u201cremember\u201d crucial facts and meetings, escaped the scandal with nothing more than criticism for his lax oversight. The nation was divided over the extent to which the president could go to \u201cprotect national interests,\u201d and the limits of Congress\u2019s constitutional authority to oversee the activities of the executive branch have yet to be resolved.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Iran-Contra Affair<\/h3>\r\nFor more information on the Iran-Contra Affair and its political fallout, watch this video:\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ccZkcFEyUyc\r\n\r\nYou can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/US+history+II\/WhatWastheIranContraAffairHistory.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cWhat Was the Iran-Contra Affair? | History\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/ae65c69c-d02b-42ae-a96f-feef7b063b00\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\r\n<section>What was the Iran-Contra affair about?<\/section><section>[reveal-answer q=\"522965\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"522965\"]After Congress ended support for the Nicaraguan Contras, President Reagan sought other sources of funding for them. Lt. Col. Oliver North then oversaw a plan by which arms would be sold to Iran and the money received from the sales would be sent to fund the Contras.[\/hidden-answer]<\/section><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\r\n<strong>Reagan Doctrine: <\/strong>this was the Reagan Administration's foreign policy strategy to challenge the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. The key idea was to provide aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements that would fight against Soviet-backed pro-communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Discuss the Reagan Doctrine and its effects on U.S. foreign policy during Ronald Reagan&#8217;s presidency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm35888848\">Ronald Reagan wished to restore American stature in the world. He entered the White House a \u201ccold warrior\u201d and referred to the Soviet Union in a 1983 speech as an \u201cevil empire.\u201d He was dedicated to upholding even authoritarian governments in foreign countries to keep them safe from Soviet influence, and desperate to put to rest Vietnam Syndrome, the reluctance to use military force in foreign countries for fear of embarrassing defeat, which had influenced U.S. foreign policy since the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n<h2>Foreign Policy Before Reagan&#8217;s Presidency<\/h2>\n<p>Reagan\u2019s first election came at a time when many Americans feared their country was in an irreversible decline. American forces withdrew in disarray from South Vietnam in 1975. The United States returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama in 1978, despite protests from conservatives. Pro-American dictators were toppled in Iran and Nicaragua in 1979. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan that same year, leading conservatives to warn about American weakness in the face of Soviet expansion. Reagan spoke to fears of decline and warned, in 1976, that \u201cthis nation has become Number Two in a world where it is dangerous\u2014if not fatal\u2014to be second best.&#8221;<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Laura Kalman, Right Star Rising: A New Politics, 1974\u20131980 (New York: Norton, 2010), 166\u2013167.\" id=\"return-footnote-1913-1\" href=\"#footnote-1913-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8339\" style=\"width: 1437px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/25043147\/Cold_War_Map_1980.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8339\" class=\"wp-image-8339 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/25043147\/Cold_War_Map_1980.png\" alt=\"World map showing Cold War nations and areas allied with the U.S. (in blue) and those allied with the Soviet Union (in red). Panama, Nicaragua, Grenada, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Vietnam are shown.\" width=\"1427\" height=\"628\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-8339\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. This world map shows Cold War alliances in 1980 and highlights many of the countries discussed on this page.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Reagan&#8217;s Foreign Policy<\/h2>\n<p>The conservative movement gained ground on gender and sexual politics, but it captured the entire battlefield of American foreign policy in the 1980s, at least for a time. Ronald Reagan entered office as a committed Cold Warrior. He held the Soviet Union in contempt, denouncing it in a 1983 speech as an \u201cevil empire.\u201d\u00a0And he never doubted that the Soviet Union would end up \u201con the ash heap of history,\u201d as he said in a 1982 speech to the British Parliament.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Lou Cannon, \u201cPresident Calls for \u2018Crusade\u2019: Reagan Proposes Plan to Counter Soviet Challenge,\u201d Washington Post, June 9, 1982, A1.\" id=\"return-footnote-1913-2\" href=\"#footnote-1913-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>The Reagan Doctrine<\/h3>\n<p>Indeed, Reagan believed it was the duty of the United States to speed the Soviet Union to its inevitable demise. His <strong>Reagan Doctrine<\/strong> declared that the United States would supply aid to anti-communist forces everywhere in the world.\u00a0To give this doctrine force, Reagan oversaw an enormous expansion in the defense budget. Federal spending on defense rose from $171 billion in 1981 to $229 billion in 1985, the highest level since the Vietnam War.\u00a0He described this as a policy of \u201cpeace through strength,\u201d a phrase that appealed to Americans who, during the 1970s, feared that the United States was losing its status as the world\u2019s most powerful nation. Yet the irony is that Reagan, for all his militarism, helped bring the Cold War to an end through negotiation, a tactic he had once scorned.<\/p>\n<h2>The Middle East<\/h2>\n<p>The Reagan administration took a cautious approach in the Middle East, where its policy was determined by a mix of anticommunism and hostility toward the Islamic government of Iran. When Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, the United States supplied Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with military intelligence and business credits\u2014even after it became clear that Iraqi forces were using chemical weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Reagan\u2019s greatest setback in the Middle East came in 1982, when, shortly after Israel invaded Lebanon, he dispatched Marines to the Lebanese city of Beirut to serve as a peacekeeping force. On October 23, 1983, a suicide bomber, working for Iranian-trained militants known as Hezbollah, killed 241 Marines stationed in Beirut. Congressional pressure and anger from the American public forced Reagan to recall the Marines from Lebanon in March 1984. Reagan\u2019s decision demonstrated that, for all his talk of restoring American power, he took a pragmatic approach to foreign policy. He was unwilling to risk another Vietnam by committing American troops to Lebanon.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_31_03_Beirut\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_31_03_Beirut\">\n<div style=\"width: 595px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203437\/CNX_History_31_03_Beirut.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph (a) shows the bombed remains of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Photograph (b) shows the ruins of the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport.\" width=\"585\" height=\"210\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. The suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut (a) on April 18, 1983, marked the first of a number of attacks on U.S. targets in the region. Less than six months later, a truck bomb leveled the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport (b), part of a coordinated attack that killed 299 U.S and French members of the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #077fab; font-size: 1.15em; font-weight: 600; text-align: initial; background-color: #ffffff;\">Latin America<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3>Grenada Invasion<\/h3>\n<p>The Reagan administration made Latin America a showcase for its newly assertive policies. Jimmy Carter had sought to promote human rights in the region, but Reagan and his advisors scrapped this approach and instead focused on fighting communism\u2014a term they applied to all Latin American left-wing movements. And so when communists with ties to Cuba overthrew the government of the Caribbean nation of Grenada in October 1983, Reagan dispatched the U.S. Marines to the island. Dubbed Operation Urgent Fury, the Grenada invasion overthrew the leftist\/communist government after less than a week of fighting. Despite the relatively minor nature of the mission, its success gave victory-hungry Americans something to cheer about after the military debacles of the previous two decades.<\/p>\n<p>Grenada was the only time Reagan deployed the American military in Latin America, but the United States also influenced the region by supporting right-wing, anticommunist movements there. From 1981 to 1990, the United States gave more than $4 billion to the government of El Salvador in a largely futile effort to defeat the guerrillas of the Farabundo Mart\u00ed National Liberation Front (FMLN).\u00a0Salvadoran security forces equipped with American weapons committed numerous atrocities, including the slaughter of almost one thousand civilians at the village of El Mozote in December 1981.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7093\" style=\"width: 776px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/10162432\/US_Army_Rangers_parachute_into_Grenada_during_Operation_Urgent_Fury.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7093\" class=\"wp-image-7093\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/08\/10162432\/US_Army_Rangers_parachute_into_Grenada_during_Operation_Urgent_Fury.jpeg\" alt=\"Photograph of parachuting paratroopers of Grenada.\" width=\"766\" height=\"588\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7093\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. invasion of Grenada, was broadly supported by the U.S. public. This photograph shows the deployment of U.S. Army Rangers into Grenada. Photograph, October 25, 1983<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section data-depth=\"1\">\n<h3>The Iran-Contra Affair<\/h3>\n<p id=\"fs-idp200013520\">Neighboring Nicaragua was also governed by a largely Marxist-inspired group, the Sandinistas. This organization, led by Daniel Ortega, had overthrown the brutal, right-wing dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Reagan, however, overlooked the legitimate complaints of the Sandinistas and believed that their rule opened the region to Cuban and Soviet influence. A year into his presidency, convinced it was folly to allow the expansion of Soviet and Communist influence in Latin America, he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to equip and train a group of anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans known as the <span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">Contras<\/span> (<em data-effect=\"italics\">contrarevolucion\u00e1rios<\/em> or \u201ccounter-revolutionaries\u201d) to oust Ortega.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idp113902496\">Reagan\u2019s desire to aid the Contras even after Congress ended its support led him, surprisingly, to Iran. In September 1980, Iraq had invaded neighboring Iran and, by 1982, had begun to gain the upper hand. The Iraqis needed weapons, and the Reagan administration, wishing to assist the enemy of its enemy, had agreed to provide Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with money, arms, and military intelligence. In 1983, however, the capture of Americans by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon had changed the president\u2019s plans (as mentioned above). In 1985, he authorized the sale of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in exchange for help retrieving three of the American hostages.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idp112648928\">A year later, Reagan\u2019s National Security Council aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, found a way to sell weapons to Iran and secretly use the proceeds to support the Nicaraguan Contras\u2014in direct violation of a congressional ban on military aid to the anti-Communist guerillas in that Central American nation. Eventually the Senate became aware, and North and others were indicted on various charges, which were all dismissed, overturned on appeal, or granted presidential pardon. Reagan, known for delegating much authority to subordinates and unable to \u201cremember\u201d crucial facts and meetings, escaped the scandal with nothing more than criticism for his lax oversight. The nation was divided over the extent to which the president could go to \u201cprotect national interests,\u201d and the limits of Congress\u2019s constitutional authority to oversee the activities of the executive branch have yet to be resolved.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Iran-Contra Affair<\/h3>\n<p>For more information on the Iran-Contra Affair and its political fallout, watch this video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-1\" title=\"What Was the Iran-Contra Affair? | History\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ccZkcFEyUyc?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/US+history+II\/WhatWastheIranContraAffairHistory.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cWhat Was the Iran-Contra Affair? | History\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_ae65c69c-d02b-42ae-a96f-feef7b063b00\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/ae65c69c-d02b-42ae-a96f-feef7b063b00?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_ae65c69c-d02b-42ae-a96f-feef7b063b00\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\n<section>What was the Iran-Contra affair about?<\/section>\n<section>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q522965\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q522965\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">After Congress ended support for the Nicaraguan Contras, President Reagan sought other sources of funding for them. Lt. Col. Oliver North then oversaw a plan by which arms would be sold to Iran and the money received from the sales would be sent to fund the Contras.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Reagan Doctrine: <\/strong>this was the Reagan Administration&#8217;s foreign policy strategy to challenge the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. The key idea was to provide aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements that would fight against Soviet-backed pro-communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-1913\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Modification, adaptation, and original content. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Benjamin Lawson for Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>US History. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\">http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction<\/li><li>Triumph of the Right. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: American Yawp. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/29-the-triumph-of-the-right\/\">https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/29-the-triumph-of-the-right\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Reagan Doctrine. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reagan_Doctrine\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reagan_Doctrine<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>What Was the Iran-Contra Affair?. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: YouTube. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ccZkcFEyUyc\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ccZkcFEyUyc<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Cold War Map 1980. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikimedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Cold_War_Map_1980.png\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Cold_War_Map_1980.png<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>The Reagan Revolution: Crash Course US History #43. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Crash Course. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2h4DkpFP_aw?t=1s\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/2h4DkpFP_aw?t=1s<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>All Rights Reserved<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section><hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-1913-1\">Laura Kalman, Right Star Rising: A New Politics, 1974\u20131980 (New York: Norton, 2010), 166\u2013167. <a href=\"#return-footnote-1913-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-1913-2\">Lou Cannon, \u201cPresident Calls for \u2018Crusade\u2019: Reagan Proposes Plan to Counter Soviet Challenge,\u201d Washington Post, June 9, 1982, A1. <a href=\"#return-footnote-1913-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":529728,"menu_order":11,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"US History\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction\"},{\"type\":\"copyrighted_video\",\"description\":\"The Reagan Revolution: Crash Course US History #43\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Crash Course\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2h4DkpFP_aw?t=1s\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"arr\",\"license_terms\":\"Standard YouTube License\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Triumph of the Right\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"American Yawp\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/29-the-triumph-of-the-right\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Reagan Doctrine\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reagan_Doctrine\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"What Was the Iran-Contra Affair?\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"YouTube\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ccZkcFEyUyc\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Modification, adaptation, and original 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