From Cold War to Culture War, 1980–2000

This is Unit Sixteen, part two, on Reagan's foreign policy, the summits, and the end of the Soviet Union. Part one closed with warning labels on records, and pointed to Rodney King. Carry one warning through this part: do not take one half for the whole. Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire, and four years later signed a treaty eliminating a whole category of nuclear weapons. The administration that welcomed home the hostages from Iran sold Iran arms for other hostages. And forty-five years of containment end in this part. By the end you will be able to describe the Los Angeles riots and the new immigration. To describe Reagan's uses of force abroad. To explain the Iran-Contra affair and its outcome. To hold both halves of Reagan's Soviet policy. And to trace the end of the Soviet Union.

Two entries: a beating on videotape and the riots that followed, and the new immigrants of these decades.

Rodney King.

USH2 2271 Rodney King

On March third, nineteen ninety-one, Los Angeles police officers were videotaped beating a Black man, Rodney King, after a high-speed chase, the Yawp records, and a year later, when four officers were acquitted, the city burned. The riots killed sixty-three people, the anchor says, and caused over a billion dollars in damage; the Yawp counts ten thousand arrests.

The new immigrants.

USH2 2272 New Immigrants

Immigration reshaped the country in these decades: more than one hundred thousand Cubans reached Florida in nineteen eighty alone in the Mariel Boatlift, the Yawp records, refugees from Central America's wars arrived, and in the nineteen nineties immigrants settled across the American South. The anchor does not carry these patterns; the Yawp does.

Three entries on Reagan the cold warrior: an evil empire, a syndrome to put to rest, and a defence in space.

The evil empire.

USH2 2273 The Evil Empire

Reagan entered office a cold warrior and in a speech of nineteen eighty-three called the Soviet Union an evil empire, having predicted in nineteen eighty-two, the Yawp records, that it would end on the ash heap of history. The anchor says he was willing to support even authoritarian governments to keep them from Soviet influence.

The Vietnam Syndrome.

USH2 2274 Vietnam Syndrome

Reagan wanted to put to rest what the anchor calls the Vietnam Syndrome, the reluctance since the mid-seventies to use military force abroad for fear of embarrassing defeat, the war of unit fifteen shaping a decade of policy after it. The anchor says his readiness to show American force sometimes had tragic consequences, as the next entries show.

The Strategic Defense Initiative.

USH2 2275 The Strategic Defense Initiative

In March nineteen eighty-three Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, a space-based system to shoot down incoming Soviet missiles, which critics derided, the Yawp says, as a Star Wars fantasy. The system was never built, and the plan, which the anchor says cost some seven and a half billion dollars, was abandoned.

Four entries on force abroad: Beirut, Grenada, the Contras, and the scheme that connected Iran to Nicaragua.

Beirut.

USH2 2276 Beirut

In nineteen eighty-three Reagan sent American troops to Lebanon with a multinational force caught in fighting after Israel's invasion the year before, and on October twenty-third a barracks bombing in Beirut by Iranian-trained Hezbollah militants killed more than two hundred of them. In February nineteen eighty-four Reagan announced the withdrawal of American forces, the anchor records.

Grenada.

USH2 2277 Grenada

In October nineteen eighty-three, after communists with ties to Cuba overthrew Grenada's government, Reagan sent Marines to the Caribbean island, the Yawp records, and Operation Urgent Fury overthrew the leftist government in less than a week. The anchor says the invasion was meant as a warning to Central America's Marxists.

The Contras.

USH2 2278 The Contras

Reagan authorised the CIA to equip and train the Contras, anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans, to oust Daniel Ortega's government, though the Boland Amendment of nineteen eighty-two, passed by the House four hundred eleven to nothing, barred American funds to them, as the Yawp records. Digital History adds that Congress ended all covert aid to the Contras in nineteen eighty-four.

Iran-Contra.

USH2 2279 Iran-Contra

The administration that took office as Iran released its American hostages then sold Iran arms for hostages. After Hezbollah seized Americans in Lebanon, Reagan's national security aides arranged the sale of weapons to Iran, and NSC aide Oliver North secretly used the proceeds to support the Contras, in direct violation of the congressional ban. When the scheme was revealed in nineteen eighty-six it provoked a major congressional investigation. North and others were indicted, but the charges, the anchor says, were dismissed, overturned on appeal or ended by presidential pardon, and Reagan escaped with criticism for lax oversight. Without a smoking gun, the Yawp says, talk of impeachment went no further than talk.

Four entries on Gorbachev and the summits that ended an arms race.

Gorbachev.

USH2 2280 Gorbachev

In nineteen eighty-five Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader, a believer in socialism who saw, the Yawp says, that the Soviet Union desperately needed to reform itself, with glasnost loosening censorship and perestroika liberalising the political machinery. The Yawp says he reached out to Reagan to end an arms race that was bankrupting the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev's reforms.

USH2 2281 Gorbachev's Reforms

Gorbachev persuaded the Communist Party to end its monopoly on power, created the Soviet Union's first working legislature and allowed the first nationwide competitive elections in nineteen eighty-nine, Digital History records, freeing political prisoners and withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the anchor notes. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen ninety for defusing Cold War tensions.

The summits.

USH2 2282 Geneva, Reykjavík and the INF Treaty

Reagan and Gorbachev met at Geneva in nineteen eighty-five, and at Reykjavík, Iceland, the following year they astonished the world with a pledge to try to abolish nuclear weapons by nineteen ninety-six. In nineteen eighty-seven, at the White House, they signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, eliminating a whole category of nuclear weapons. The same president had called the Soviet Union an evil empire four years earlier. The misreading takes one half for the whole: Reagan the hawk, or Reagan the peacemaker. The anchor records both, a build-up and then engagement after nineteen eighty-four, and the Yawp says the summits built a relationship of unprecedented trust, which made the treaty possible.

The speech at the Berlin Wall.

USH2 2283 Tear Down This Wall

In a speech at the Berlin Wall in nineteen eighty-seven Reagan declared: General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, tear down this wall. The Yawp judges that Reagan combined anti-Communist rhetoric with a willingness to negotiate, and adds that the most significant causes of the Soviet collapse lay within the Soviet empire itself.

Three entries: a banking crisis in the making, the election of nineteen eighty-eight, and peace in Nicaragua.

The savings and loan crisis.

USH2 2284 The Savings and Loan Crisis

A law of nineteen eighty let savings institutions pay any interest rate and invest in commercial real estate, Digital History records, and in nineteen eighty-two and eighty-three Congress broadened their power to make unsecured loans. Digital History says the time had come by the early nineteen nineties to pay for the decade's financial excesses.

The election of nineteen eighty-eight.

USH2 2285 The Election of 1988

In nineteen eighty-eight Vice President George H. W. Bush defeated Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, pledging read my lips: no new taxes, and ran an advertisement featuring Willie Horton, a Black convicted murderer released on a Massachusetts prison furlough, as the Yawp records. Digital History calls the campaign unusually vacuous and cynical; the anchor says the tax pledge later constrained Bush.

Peace in Nicaragua.

USH2 2286 Peace in Nicaragua

The American preoccupation with Nicaragua began to fade in nineteen eighty-seven, after Costa Rica's president, Oscar Arias, proposed a regional peace plan, Digital History records, and in nineteen ninety Nicaraguan voters routed the Sandinistas at the polls, ending ten turbulent years of Sandinista rule.

Three entries on the end of the Soviet Union: a wall, a coup, and a resignation.

The fall of the Berlin Wall.

USH2 2287 The Berlin Wall Falls

By the end of nineteen eighty-nine, Digital History records, the Berlin Wall had been smashed, as Eastern Bloc nations turned against their Communist governments and protesters from both halves of Berlin tore down large pieces of the wall. Gorbachev let the Eastern Bloc nations go, the Yawp says.

The coup of nineteen ninety-one.

USH2 2288 The August Coup

In August nineteen ninety-one conservative Communists tried to oust Gorbachev in a coup, Digital History records, before a new union treaty could be signed, after Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had declared independence the year before and other Soviet republics had begun to demand greater sovereignty.

The end of the Soviet Union.

USH2 2289 The End of the Soviet Union

In July nineteen ninety-one Bush and Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, committing both nations to cut their nuclear arsenals by twenty-five percent. On December twenty-fifth, nineteen ninety-one, Gorbachev resigned, and the Soviet Union ended its existence that month. The Yawp gives the causes: a stagnant economy, a costly and disastrous war in Afghanistan, dissident factions in Eastern Europe and internal dissent. Former Soviet republics joined a Commonwealth of Independent States; Digital History dates its founding to December nineteen ninety-one, the anchor to January nineteen ninety-two. Containment, begun with Kennan's telegram in unit thirteen, had run forty-five years from nineteen forty-six.

Look at what you can now do. You can describe the Los Angeles riots after the officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted, and the new immigration from Cuba, Central America and across the South. You can describe Reagan's uses of force: Beirut's barracks, Grenada in a week, and the Contras. You can explain Iran-Contra: arms sold to Iran for hostages, proceeds sent to the Contras against a congressional ban, and charges that ended in dismissal, reversal or pardon. You can hold both halves of Reagan's Soviet policy: the evil empire and the build-up, and the summits and the treaty. And you can trace the end of the Soviet Union, from the fall of the wall to Gorbachev's resignation, forty-five years after containment began.