The Reagan Revolution

The Reagan Revolution Social Change and Foreign Policy

Study Guide Identifications • Supply side economics/Reaganomics • Carter Corollary • Reagan Doctrine • Operation Cyclone • Camp David Accords 1978 • Feminization of Poverty • “New Right” • “Religious Right” • Sandanistas vs. Contras/“freedom fighters” • Renewed Cold war/Evil Empire • Mikhail Gorbachev/End of Soviet Union • Iran Contra Affair/Boland Amendments/NSC

Study Guide Questions • What was the legacy of the 1960’s? • What changes took place concerning identity and women’s roles, or questions of women’s roles? • What Characterized the “New Right”? • What was the Conservative Social Agenda? • What was foreign policy under Reagan?

Legacy of the 1960s Activism • Came to characterize American political life • Mass demonstrations - Protest advocacy tool. • 1980s - Clamshell alliance • Against a nuclear reactor • “Take Back the Night” • Protest sexual assault and violence • 1995 Million Man March • Campaign of social reconstruction in black communities • Mass demonstrations - lost power to attract media

Women’s Roles • Ideas of domesticity • Reality much different • Birth control pill - sexual behavior. • Many women questioned gender based divisions in both public and private sectors. • 1970’s-80s activism • Distribution of political power • Feminization of poverty • Women’s self-sufficiency

Group Identity • Increased emphasis on group identity as the basis for social activism grew • Cultural differences among Americans should be affirmed rather than feared, celebrated rather than simply tolerated. • Battles against discrimination and for cultural pride continued • African American • American Indian • Asian • Mexican • Homosexual Movements

Efforts to Reform American Foreign Policy • Ford & Jimmy Carter Administrations in the mid 1970s • Cost of Vietnam – speed decline of U.S. as super power • Salt I & II treaties with Soviet Union • Negotiate strategic arms control & relative peace • Carter promise of commitment to Human Rights • Condemned policies that allowed the U.S. to support right wing monarch and military dictators in the name of anti-communism

Carter’s Reform Efforts • Reform CIA & discourage intervention and covert action abroad • Make the CIA act within the law, rather than above the law • Temporary changes • Camp David Accords • 1978 terms for peace in the Middle East • Negotiations between Israel, Egypt & Palestine • Anwar el-Sadat (Egypt), Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel), Arafat (PLO) • Conflict since Israel established in 1948 by Balfour Declaration following World War II

Panama, Nicaragua, Afghanistan & Iran Under Carter • Negotiated return of Panama Canal Zone to Panama by 2000 • following independence movement or revolt against United States control • 1979 Sandanista Movement overthrows dictator and U.S. ally Anastasio Somoza • Plea for U.S. support denied by Carter

Afghanistan Under Carter Administration • 1979 Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan • Carter: "The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is the greatest threat to peace since the Second World War". • 30,000 troops sent to crush Islamic independence movement against Soviet influence and control • Carter argued that soviet presence “posed a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil”

Carter Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine • Affirmed right of the military force to protect the interests in the Persian Gulf • Halted exports to Soviet Union • Canceled U.S. participation in the Moscow Olympics • Supported Afghanistan Resistance against soviet occupation • In May 1985, the seven principal rebel organizations formed the Seven Party Mujahideen Alliance to coordinate their military operations against the Soviet army. • Operation Cyclone: CIA under Carter & Reagan provided aid • Armed the Afghan Mujahideen 1979 – 1989, 20 billion • Increased military spending

Iran Hostage Crisis • November 4, 1979 Iranian fundamentalists seized the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 American employees hostage for 444 days. • Pahlavi Royal family as the shah of Iran in 1953 • millions of dollars into the economy and armed military. • In 1979 a revolution led by the Islamic leader Ayatollah Tuhollah Khomenini had overthrown the Shah. • Carter allowed the Shah to seek refuge in California • retaliated by taking American staff as hostages. • Attempts to return the hostages failed.

Election of 1980 • Walter Mondale & Geraldine Ferraro • Emphasized growing deficit, raise in taxes, called attention to the citizens denied prosperity in America • Ronald Reagan and former CIA director and Texas Oil executive H.W. Bush. • Choice between a (D) “government of pessimism, fear and limits” or his own based on “Hope, Confidence and growth.” • Reagan began with an inauguration that cost millions of dollars, Nancy’s wardrobe cost $25,000 • Began a show and celebration of wealth and power that would prevail • His election interpreted by supporters as a mandate for conservatism that had been growing since the Nixon years

Reagan’s Political Objectives • Limit state support for welfare and social services • Expand state power to enforce law and order • Championed anti-communism • Tapped the resentment over rising property taxes & high inflation • Backlash against • Anti-war movement • counterculture • Women’s liberation • Urban uprisings • Emphasized “family issues” • Opposed sex education, abortion rights, gay liberation • Opposed the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment

c. Emergence of “New Right” • Backlash against liberalism of 1960s • Framed goals in terms of emphasis of “Moral Values” • Largest component of movement were evangelical or born again protestants • Opposed re-treat from anti-communist foreign policy & domestic programs that addressed poverty and equality • Religious right • Protestants, fundamentalists, Evangelical churches. • Battled to prevent the IRS from denying tax-exempt status to private Christian colleges that opposed racial integration • Roe Vs. Wade • mobilized fundamentalists and evangelical leaders joined with the Catholic conservatives in opposing abortion.

Conservative Social Agenda • National Conservative Political Action Committee, the Conservative Caucus, the Moral Majority • No separation of church & state • Defending family values - by opposing abortion and “degenerate” life styles • The Male-headed nuclear family needs protection from moral wrongs of homosexuals and feminists. • Education : New ideas such as multiculturalism and feminism dangerous • Movement towards reinterpreting history from a multicultural non-traditional perspective is under fire.

Reagan Revolution • Rejected the activist welfare states legacy of the New Deal Era • Rejected Keynesian economics • traditionally favored moderate tax cuts and increases in government spending to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment, by putting money in peoples pockets, greater consumer demand would lead to economic expansion. • Supply-siders or Reaganomics • called for simultaneous tax cuts and reductions in public spending, this would give private entrepreneurs and investors greater incentives to start business, take risks, invest capital and create new wealth and jobs.

Supply Side EconomicsReaganomics • The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 • benefited the richest fraction of the population that derives most of its income from rent, dividends and interest instead of from wages. • The Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 • cut social and cultural programs, hardest hit areas included education, environment, health, housing, urban aid, food stamps, research on synthetic fuels and the arts

Greatly increased the defense budget • Anti organized labor – • 13,000 federal employees all members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization went who went on strike in 1981, he fired all of them. By 1990 15% of workers belonged to a labor union • Deregulation • weakened rules that governed environmental protection, workplace safety, consumer protection to increase the efficiency and productivity of business. • Large corporations, wall street stock brokerages, investment banking houses, savings and loan industry were allowed to operate with a much freer hand than ever before.

George Gilder, conservative author of Wealth and Poverty (1988) • summarized this economic theory: “ A successful economy depends on the proliferation of the rich.” • Politically supply-siders look to reward the most loyal republican constituencies , the affluent and business community. • They reduce the flow of federal dollars to two core democratic constituencies: the recipients and professional providers of health and welfare programs.

Promise & Reality • Promise to balance the budget • Reality National debt tripled from 914 billion (1980) to 2.7 Trillion (1989) • Fiscal crisis became a structural problem • Supply side economics ultimately reversed America from being the leading creditor nation in the world to a debtor nation (340 Billion)

Best & Worst Time, Reagan and American popular culture • Popular culture • Celebration of wealth, money making and entrepreneurship • Dominated 1980s to present • Greater Inequality • Middle class shrinking, poverty rising • Promise of Middle class status • Fewer able to improve living standards or reach the middle class

Reagan’s Promise to Restore World Supremacy • Increased military spending • Foreign policy • Revival of cold war patriotism • Championed U.S. Interventionism • Intervened in Caribbean, Latin and South America • Anti-communist Rhetoric centerpiece for foreign policy • Labeled the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire… the focus of evil in the modern world” • Though soviets dismantling & retreat from arms race and empire building made cold war framework of international affairs irrelevant by 1980s

Arms Race Nuclear Power • 70% of Americans favored nuclear freeze • 1982 750,000 people demonstrated, NY • Halt on spending on and deployment of nuclear weapons • 1982 Regan announced the SDI initiative • Star Wars or the Strategic Defense Initiative • Estimated 27 Billion, spent 17 billion • Meaningful arms control undermined • Soviet-U.S. relations deteriorated

Foreign Policy & the “Reagan Doctrine” • Reasserted America’s right to intervene anywhere in the world to “roll back” communism by supplying overt and covert aid to “anti-communist resistance movements” • Assumed that political instability resulted from soviet influence • 1983 invaded Grenada, Nicaragua, El Salvador • 1983 Grenada, Socialist leader assassinated & installed a friendly government.

CIA Covert Action • Aided anticommunist forces in Afghanistan and the Contras in Nicaragua • Waged a renewed cold war to support anticommunist governments that “supported democracy” to constrain the soviets sphere of influence. • “Freedom Fighters”

El Salvador • Aided a repressive regime (pro-American) • 1983 right wing death squads tortured and assassinated 1,000’s of opposition leaders • Bloody Civil war left 54,000 dead • Reagan looked to Nicaragua • Sandanista government “posed an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security”

Nicaragua • Nicaragua • Sandanista Party • 1984 Reagan escalated the undeclared war against the Sandanistas • US augmented its military forces in neighboring Honduras • Conducted training exercises throughout the region • Stepped up economic pressure • Launched a psychological offensive to discredit the Sandanistas. • Trained and equipped an opposition military force of Nicaraguans or Contras. • Supported murderous dictatorships in nearby El Salvador and Guatamala

U.S. Intervention in Nicaragua • 1909 - 1933 Taft coup on President Zalaya • Trans isthmus Canal • Nationalization of land • 1936 Guardia Nacional – Coup • Somoza Regime 1937 – 47, 1950-56 • 1962 the FSLN, Liberation Front, Sandanistas • Oppose regime of Anastasio somoza • Nationalized banking • Somoza Regime 1967-72, 1974-1979

Public Criticism • U. S. backed regimes were clearly implicated in human-rights abuses • Nuns, journalists, humanitarian aid workers included • Brutality and corruption among the contras or so called freedom fighters brought growing public criticism. • American grass roots opposition • Sister city projects offered humanitarian & technical assistance to Nicaraguan communities • 1984 Boland Amendments • Congress ban on arms sales • Forbade government agencies from supporting “directly or indirectly military or para-military operations” in Nicaragua

Iran-contra affair • Denied funding my congress, • Reagan turned to the National Security Council to find a way to keep the contra war going • 1984 – 1986 raised 37 million in aid from foreign countries and private contributors, largest mercenary army in the hemispheric history • 1986 sold arms to Pro-Iranian Islamic Radicals in a secret deal to secure the release of American hostages of Muslim militants • Sold arms to Iran to channel profits to the contra forces • circumvented Boland Amendments

Cover – up & American Amnesia • National Security Council • advisors Robert McFarlane and Admiral John Poindexter • sold weapons and missiles to Iranians using Israel and the go between. • North and Poindexter lied to congress , shredded evidence and refused to keep the president fully informed to guaranteed his “plausible deniability” • convicted as felons, • 1992 H.W. Bush granted pardons to 6 key players in the scandal.

End of the Soviet Union & Collapse of Communism • Mikhail Gorbachev (General Secretary of the communist party in 1985) • Policy of Glasnost (openness) & Perestroika (economic liberalization) • 1987 signed a major Arms Treaty that reduced each nations supply of range missiles • He declared and end to the cold war • Soviet sphere of influence and the union itself would cease to exist

Consequences of Reaganomics • National debt tripled to 2.7 Trillion 1989 • The fiscal crisis became a structural problem with profound & long lasting implications for the American economy • Became indebted to foreign nations (340 billion) • Post WWII the leading creditor, now the biggest debtor

Greater Inequality • Average weekly and hourly earnings dropped between 1980-1992 • Share of Total Net Worth of American Families • Richest 1% 31% 1983 – 37% 1989 • Next Richest 9% 35% to 31% 1989 • Remaining 90% 33% to 32%

Environmental De-regulation • Sagebrush Rebellion • Sympathetic to western movement of citizens who wanted vast federal land holdings in the west transferred to the states for less environmental protection and more rapid economic use • Trees – timber companies • Expanded offshore oil drilling • Expedited exploration for minerals

Greater Inequality • Number of Poor, Rate of Poverty and Poverty Line 1979-92 • Millions of poor 26.1 to 36.9 million in 1992 • Rate increased from 11.7% to 15% • Poverty Line increased from $7,412 to %14,335

Crisis for Organized Labor • Republican offensive against labor unions • (Air Traffic Controllers Organization) • Other companies followed suit leading to the decline of union membership and blue collar jobs • Hormel • Phelps-Dodge • National labor Relations Board and other federal agencies weakened collective bargaining by their interpretation of labor management relations • Workers accepted a roll back in wages and loss of other benefits to be able to keep their jobs

Job Creation • Low wage jobs were created at a growth rate of 50% • Middle wage jobs at 31.7% • High wage jobs at 11.9% • Deindustrialization and blue collar job destruction led to loss of standard of living achieved in the 1950s and 1960s

Median Family Income by race • All races combined median income increased by $1,000 between 1980 and 1992 • Income for Whites increased by $1,600 • Income for Blacks decreased by $450.00 • Income for Hispanics decreased by $1000.00

Feminization of Poverty • Experience of poverty became the experience of predominately women and children • Jobs available decreased for women with children & were lower paying • Took financial support of a male breadwinner to keep a family out of poverty • Courts sided on behalf of fathers in court • Loss of alimony • Middle class women pushed into poverty • Majority of men defaulted on child support payments • Divorced men increased standard of living • Divorce women decreased standard of living

Female Headed Households, 1992 • 13.7 million people • Accounted for 37% of the nations poor • Number of black women as heads of household increased from 30% in 1970 to 47% in 1980

Gender & Economic Contradictions • Social and economic pressure to fulfill traditional roles • Vs • The need for women to work

Wage Gap • 1980s Women made 60 cents on the male earned dollar • 2003 women made 75 cents • EXPLAINED • Decline of earning among men • Better educated women finding better jobs

The Reagan Revolution