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Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict by
peaceful means . The Ronald Reagans foreign policy from 1981 to 1989 was
characterized by a strategy of peace through strength . When Reagan became
President, he had only one well-defined foreign policy goal : containing the evil
empire , the actual Soviet Union, which could jeopardizes global peace. In order to
reach this peace, Reagan acts to spread democracy and reduce nuclear arms on
both sides . The first document is a scheme showing how does the Strategic
Defense Initiative work. Star Wars , was a program first initiated in 1983 under
President Ronald Reagan. Source 2 includes two comments about Reagans foreign
policy, signs of his strong commitment within the Cold War during his first
presidency. Source 3 is a press article published in the Time on June 14, 2004,
dealing with the Reagans contribution to curb communism wherever it could
prosper, and his sharp desire to reduce nuclear weapons in order to ensure a
worldwide peace. What were the aspects of the Ronald Reagans policy for the
purpose of promoting peace throughout the world ? We will first deal with the
Reagans desire of ensuring peace by strengthening the US arsenal, and then we
will see that a more pacifist strategy was led by Reagan, in order to reduce nuclear
weapons.

* *

First of all, Reagan planned to curb the communist influence by strengthening

nuclear forces. The Soviets had outstripped the US in terms of nuclear arsenals,
thats why Reagan doubled defense spending during his first term according to
source 3. In order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the
Soviet Union, he initiated the Strategic Defense Initiate (SDI) on March 1983 :
With the tension of the Cold War looming overhead, this notional defense network
could target and destroy any incoming enemy missiles before they reached the
United States. Although the program seemed to have no negative consequences,
there were concerns brought up about the program contravening the anti-ballistic
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missile of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks years before. For this reason, in
conjunction with budgetary constraints, the Strategic Defense Initiative was
ultimately set aside. Moreover, as the scheme points out, the nickname Star Wars
may have been attached to the program for some of its abstract and farfetched
ideas, many of which included lasers : there was a large power requirement for
these types of weapons, designs were ambitious and required devises were in an
early stage of development.
Reagan confirms his struggle against communism through the invasion of the
Caribbean Island Grenada in 1983. As the third document points out, Reagan
started battling against communists in center America : He had opted to take up
arms. Reagan justified the invasion by stating that the cooperation of the island
with communist Cuba posed a threat to the United States. The United States
achieved to make Paul Scoon, the Grenadas Governor-General, appoint a new
government. The Reagan policy also provided the Nicaraguan contra insurgency
with arms : this support made the Sandinistas fall in 1990, but was very
controversial. However, Reagan took a drift in his strategy, as we can see on source
2 : We must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so
formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women . Strength does not
have to be translated through arms, thats why Reagan choose another way of
coping with communism.

Ronald Reagan, as source 3 points out, may have been the champion of
missile defense, but he also declared as his dream the complete abolition of nuclear
weapons . Gorbatchev rose to power in 1985. In 1986, Reagan and Gorbachev met
at Reykjavik, for a summit at which they discussed eliminating all nuclear weapons.
The goal eluded them as Reagan refused to slow research on the ballistic missile
defense system. But the summit paved the way for the 1987 treaty on intermediate-
range nuclear force missiles, the first to actually eliminate a class of nuclear
weapons, and a later treaty that limited strategic arms. Reagan helped to end the
Cold War by exercising prudent diplomacy rather than by crusading against
communism. In that regard, of all the foreign policy achievements of the Reagan
Presidency, none is more important, or had more lasting impact on the world, than
the fundamental change in US-Soviet relations. President Reagan asserted that We
dont mistrust each other because were armed. Were armed because we mistrust each
other. Reagan began to forge a relationship that would not only improve US-
Soviet relations, but would turn out to be the beginning of the end of Soviet
domination of Eastern Europe. He launched a political, military, psychological, and
economic offensive designed to undermine Soviet power. Reagans speeches, his
national security directives, and his policies sought to roll-back the Soviet empire.
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Reagan the conciliator engaged in summitry and arms control negotiations with
a reformist Mikhail Gorbachev to peacefully manage the Cold War. Reagans
relationship with Gorbachev then enabled President George H.W. Bush to
peacefully liberate the peoples of eastern and central Europe from Soviet control.

* *

By working with Mikhail Gorbachev rather than against him, Ronald Reagan
helped to strengthen the growing spirit of reform within the Soviet Union. Less
than a year after Reagan left office, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Cold War ended in
1991. The Wests peaceful Cold War victory demonstrated that Reagan succeeded at
being both a crusader, through the several interventions he launched to stamp out
communism, and a conciliator.