Changes

The result was a major humiliation for the United States, and a consensus that the country was now an underdog and needed new leadership to claw its way back.

The result was a major humiliation for the United States, and a consensus that the country was now an underdog and needed new leadership to claw its way back.

===Ronald Reagan & George H.W. Bush 1981-93===

===Ronald Reagan 1981-89===

* [[Reagan Doctrine]]  

* [[Reagan Doctrine]]  

* [[Rollback]]  

* [[Rollback]]  

Reagan defeated Carter in 1980 by stressing the failures of both foreign and domestic policy, warning America had become weak at home and abroad. Rejecting détente he called for rollback of the decrepit Soviet Empire, whose only strength was in missile power but which was falling apart in terms of economics, politics and society.  

Reagan defeated Carter in 1980 by stressing the failures of both foreign and domestic policy, warning America had become weak at home and abroad. Rejecting détente he called for rollback of the decrepit Soviet Empire, whose only strength was in missile power but which was falling apart in terms of economics, politics and society.  

Reagan restructured American politics in a manner reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt' [[New Deal Coalition]]. Reagan built entirely new electoral coalitions using fresh issues, such as opposition to taxes, opposition to economic regulation, and support for moral issues (like right-to-life) promoted by Catholics and especially evangelical Protestants.  In foreign policy the Cold War resumed with renewed intensity.  The defeatism of the late 1970s sparked a new determination among the Reaganites.  In the 1970s the Soviets had rejected détente, expanded Cold War operations into Africa, Asia and Latin America, enlarged their long-range missile forces, and invaded neutral Afghanistan.  Washington had learned a lesson from Vietnam, and succeeded in turning Afghanistan into a quagmire for the Soviets.  Reagan's tax cuts and a national commitment to computers and high tech reenergized the American economy (at the cost of long-term national debt). Although racial and gender inequality diminished, economic inequality grew.  The Soviet economy proved utterly incapable of handling the transition from the industrial age of mechanical devices to the new information age.  Reagan convinced the nation to fund a vast “Star Wars” missile defense system as part of a gigantic high-tech military buildup that stunned the Soviets. They did not have the money or technology to compete in the renewed Cold War, and they realized defeat was looming.  Moscow turned to Mikhail Gorbachev who made desperate attempts to salvage Communism.  Reagan cut a deal—give up the Cold War and Gorbachev could have arms deals that would allow him to cut military spending and save his economy.  Gorbachev went along, abandoning Afghanistan and other overseas adventures, and finally releasing control over the European satellites. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989, marked the end of the Cold War with a stunning American victory.  Gorbachev's reforms, meanwhile, made the Soviet economy worse, and he and the entire Communist system was overthrown in late 1991, as Russia started on the difficult transition to democracy and a capitalist economy..  

Reagan restructured American politics in a manner reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt' [[New Deal Coalition]]. Reagan built entirely new electoral coalitions using fresh issues, such as opposition to taxes, opposition to economic regulation, and support for moral issues (like right-to-life) promoted by Catholics and especially evangelical Protestants.  In foreign policy the Cold War resumed with renewed intensity.  The defeatism of the late 1970s sparked a new determination among the Reaganites.  In the 1970s the Soviets had rejected détente, expanded Cold War operations into Africa, Asia and Latin America, enlarged their long-range missile forces, and invaded neutral Afghanistan.  Washington had learned a lesson from Vietnam, and succeeded in turning Afghanistan into a quagmire for the Soviets.  Reagan's tax cuts and a national commitment to computers and high tech reenergized the American economy (at the cost of long-term national debt). Although racial and gender inequality diminished, economic inequality grew.  The Soviet economy proved utterly incapable of handling the transition from the industrial age of mechanical devices to the new information age.  Reagan convinced the nation to fund a vast “Star Wars” missile defense system as part of a gigantic high-tech military buildup that stunned the Soviets. They did not have the money or technology to compete in the renewed Cold War, and they realized defeat was looming.  Moscow turned to Mikhail Gorbachev who made desperate attempts to salvage Communism.  Reagan cut a deal—give up the Cold War and Gorbachev could have arms deals that would allow him to cut military spending and save his economy.  Gorbachev went along, abandoning Afghanistan and other overseas adventures, and finally releasing control over the European satellites. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989, marked the end of the Cold War with a stunning American victory.  Gorbachev's reforms, meanwhile, made the Soviet economy worse, and he and the entire Communist system was overthrown in late 1991, as Russia started on the difficult transition to democracy and a capitalist economy.

 

 

 

The years since 1991 comprise a new era.  Fears of cataclysmic wars faded, to be replaced by new threats, especially those arising in the Middle East.  When Iraq under [[Saddam Hussein]] invaded its neighbor Kuwait in 1991, the United Nations demanded that Iraq withdraw.  When it refused the United States led a broad coalition that pushed Iraq out, but which left Hussein in power under UN supervision.  In 2001 Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States, leading America into a war on terrorism.  America was the world's only superpower, with military strength much greater than everyone else combined, and economic muscle and high technology to back it up.  The overwhelming strength of the United States, and the absence of any countervailing force like Communism, meant that fears and hatreds came to focus on America, widely seen as a new empire.  Americans meanwhile and to adjust to heightened levels of security at home, and were ill-disposed to listen to foreign critics.  The ways to which society and culture of the American homefront would adjust to the new Age of Terror became a central issue of the new century.

====Ending the Cold War====

====Ending the Cold War====