MacFormat 1996 July/macformat-039.iso/DATABASE/SHARED.DIR/01290_148.cap.txt

Text File | 1996-03-14 | 3.6 KB | 231 lines

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Ronald Reagan
appeared in many
B-movies during
the Forties, often
as the good guy
enforcing the law
or righting wrongs.
Many critics said
that he adopted this
same simplistic
approach when he
took office
#
Even in his acting
days, Reagan was
deeply involved in
politics. He was
known at first
as a Democrat,
but he shifted to
the right wing of
the Republican
party, and he had
a successful run
as state governor
of California from
1966 and 1974,
which helped him
to win the presi-
dential nomination
#
In 1980 Reagan
took the White
House from the
incumbent Jimmy
Carter. He won the
presidency with
a promise to make
big cuts in govern-
ment spending and
to take a tough line
with the Soviet
Union, then in the
early stages of its
Afghan adventure
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Reagan kept his
promise to tackle
the cost of federal
government. One of
his initiatives was
to encourage the
private sector to
help those living
on welfare. Such
ideas did not work
well (under Reagan
the poor generally
became poorer)
but privatisation
and  low-cost
government were
to become bywords
of 'Reaganomics'
#
Reagan managed
to balance the
state budget when
he was governor of
California. But he
could not repeat
this achievement
in Washington. His
tax-cutting plans,
another plank of
'Reaganomics', left
the United States
with the biggest
budget deficit in
its history
#
Reagan's second
term was marred
by revelations of
government arms
sales to Iran. The
proceeds from
this illegal trade
went to fund right
wing guerrillas in
Nicaragua. Reagan
convincingly
denied knowledge
of the affair, but
it came to sym-
bolise the hands-
off approach which
let aides act in
an illegal and
corrupt manner
#
The main player in
the Iran-Contra
affair was Oliver
North, a Reagan who
organized the covert
arms sales. He was
sent to prison, but
remained a hero to
many Americans
convinced that a
fighting attitude to
left-wing regimes
was the best way
to protect the best
interests of the
United States

#
Reagan was prone
to crass political
blunders. In 1984,
a flippant remark
made in the course
of a sound check
caused genuine
alarm in the Soviet
Union, where - joke
or no joke - it was
thought to betray
a lack of real
commitment to
the process of
disarmament
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Reagan found a
political soulmate
in Mrs Thatcher,
the British prime
minister. Their
relationship was
based on mutual
respect and friend-
ship, as well as on
the closeness of
their philosophies,
and Anglo-American
relations were
better than they
had been for years
#
Ronald Reagan
saw himself as
the scourge of
communism. For
him, the true
significance of
the collapse of
the Berlin Wall
was that it opened
the way for Eastern
Europe to join the
consumer paradise
of the western
market economies
#
The  main obstacle
to better relations
between the US
and the USSR was
"star wars". The
US said this new
satellite system
was designed only
to neutralise
incoming nuclear
missiles. But the
Russians thought
it had far more
aggressive uses,
and they were also
secretly worried
that the Soviet
economy could not
stand a techno-
logical escalation
of the cold war
#
A new era in US-
Soviet relations
dawned when
Mikhail Gorbachev
became Soviet
leader in 1985.
Gorbachev was
anxious to end
the arms race,
hoping that the
resulting 'peace
dividend' would
fund the deep
reforms he had
in mind for his
own country

#
The single finest
achievement of
Ronald Reagan's
presidency was
the agreement
made with the
Soviet Union in
1987 to do away
with all of the
ground-based
intermediate-
range nuclear
weapons on both
sides. The treaty
can be said to mark
the beginning of
the end of the
cold war which
had defined world
politics for the
previous 40 years
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