Reagan’s most damaging foreign-policy event was the Iran-contra affair. Late in 1986 the administration admitted that it had been secretly selling arms to Iran, with some of the profits possibly going to the guerrillas in Nicaragua. Reagan claimed that
he had not been informed of the Iran-contra link. The two policies-selling arms to Iran in apparent exchange for hostages and sending arms to Nicaragua-triggered multiple investigations.
[The official 1987 report] depicted Reagan as confused and
uninformed, and concluded that his relaxed “personal management style” had prevented him from controlling his subordinates. Congressional committees heard testimony that Reagan did not know of the diversion of funds. Most committee members signed a
majority report in Nov. 1987 asserting that although Reagan’s role in the affair could not be determined precisely, he had clearly failed to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Poindexter, North, and others were indicted in the affair.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
Dec 25, 2000
Called USSR “Evil Empire,” but signed an anti-nuke deal
Soviet-US relations were generally chilly during Reagan’s first term. The Reagan-proposed Strategic Defense Initiative [and several other events] contributed to continuing tensions. A cordial 1985 meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began a
warming trend. In 1987 the two leaders signed a historic treaty in Washington that would eliminate their intermediate-range nuclear forces. In 1988, Reagan had a friendly summit meeting in Moscow, the capital of what he had once called an “evil empire.”
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
Dec 25, 2000
Assist contras to overthrow Sandinistas
Reagan’s long-standing foreign-policy initiative was to assist anti-Communist guerrillas, known as contras, in thwarting alleged Soviet-Cuban inroads into Nicaragua and to pressure the Sandinista government to hold elections and negotiate with its
neighbors. Congress reversed itself several times on whether to give humanitarian or military aid to the contras. Apparently Reagan’s real goal was to overthrow the Sandinistas, but after a 1988 cease-fire, this objective appeared unrealistic.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
Dec 25, 2000
Ignored ICJ ruling against mining Nicaraguan harbors
In Jan. 1984, mines were laid in Sandino harbor in Nicaragua, accompanied by other mine-layings, sabotage of Sandanista communications, and destruction of an arms depot. In April, it was disclosed that the CIA had conducted the action, and a Senate
resolution condemned the mining 84-12.
The mines were designed primarily to damage and scare off ships rather than destroy them, but they were a clear violation of international law. The Sandanistas took their case to the International Court of
Justice in the Hague (popularly known as the World Court) and won, though the administration refused in advance to recognize the court’s jurisdiction. The mining of the harbors was an example of “force against another state,” the court said; US support
of the contras “amounts to an intervention of one state in he internal affairs of the other.”
By 1984 the contras had become an end in themselves. Loyalty to the contras had become the litmus test for loyalty to “Reagan’s policy” among conservatives.
The Reagan administration’s attitude toward the UN could be gauged by the appointment of Jeane Kirkpatrick as UN Ambassador. She was a frequent critic of the “anti-Americanism” expressed in General Assembly votes. American distrust and dislike of the UN
would be confirmed repeatedly in the Reagan years. The Administration withdrew from UNESCO, cut off America’s contribution to the UN Fund for Population Activities, cast the single vote against a World Health Organization code for infant formula, and did
not oppose the Kassebaum amendment reducing America’s contribution to the General Assembly by 25% unless the UN should amend its charter. The Administration encouraged Britain’s withdrawal from UNESCO (the objective of a Heritage Foundation campaign),
and threatened its own withdrawal from several other international agencies. When Nicaragua took the CIA’s mining of its harbors before the International Court, the US refused to recognize the Court’s jurisdiction.
Source: Reagan’s America, by Garry Wills, p. 353
Jul 2, 1987
Aid to Soviet Union dependent on its commitment to freedom
We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures? There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable.
Mr. Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, come to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! In this age of redoubled economic growth,
of information and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: It must make changes, or it will become obsolete. We in the West stand ready to cooperate with the East to create a safe, freer world.
Source: Speech at Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany
Jun 12, 1987
Iran-Contra: maybe authorized it, unknowingly
If we are to believe Donald Regan, a man of generally accepted honesty, the blood drained from the President’s face when Meese told him that some of the money paid by Iran for TOW missiles had been siphoned off from Israel by Col. North and funneled to
the Contras. Reagan looked drawn & stern.
It was the reaction, in Regan’s opinion, of a complete innocent. Or, it was the reaction, a cynic might say, of someone who had been found out. Guilt drains blood just as fast as shock.
Only the Admiral knows
whether Reagan knowingly authorized the transfer of illegal funds from illegal mercenaries in the Middle East to another set of illegal mercenaries in Central America. My suspicion is that Reagan did authorize the transfer, not having the smallest
comprehension of the laws he was subverting. Reagan’s character by 1986 had become so lacking in curiosity & his life as president so repetitive, that when I went to interview him, I was reminded of the what-am-I-doing-here look of an actor between takes
[At the opening of a memorial to Holocaust victims]:
What we have seen makes unforgettably clear that no one of the rest of us can fully understand the enormity of the feelings carried by the victims of these camps.
Here lie people-Jews-
whose death was inflicted for no other reason than their very existence. Here death ruled.
We are here because humanity refuses to accept that freedom or the spirit of man can ever be extinguished. We are here to commemorate that life triumphed over
the tragedy and the death of the Holocaust. Out of the ashes-hope, and from all the pain-promise.
As we flew here, over the greening farms and the emerging springtime, I reflected that there must have been a time when the prisoners of Bergen-Belsen
and those of every other camp must have felt that the springtime was gone forever from their lives. Here they lie. Never to hope. Never to pray. Never to love. Never to heal. Never to laugh. Never to cry.
Someone with impeccably pro-Nationalist credentials was needed to convince Chiang Kai-shek of the continuing goodwill of the US.
Reagan’s ambivalence over such a mission is evident in a speech he wrote : “The President has been blunt in his
declarations that we will not under any circumstances desert an old friend and ally. give anything away, or betray or honor. If I am wrong and that should be the result--time then for indignation.”
This was good enough for Nixon. In 1971, Governor
Reagan found himself appointed special presidential envoy and dizzyingly transported to a throne room in Taiwan. Chiang Kai-Shek received him stiff with rage. “Look, I don’t like this any more than you do, but it had to happen sooner or later.”
Flying home, Reagan found that he had been converted by his own mission. Taiwan was more secure now than before since “the People’s Republic,” would have to respect its sovereignty or compromise the new rapprochement.
Open door to PRC, but maintain alliance with Taiwan
Reagan had long been Taiwan’s leading political champion. When he was elected, Reagan still believed that the government that fled to Taiwan in 1949 was the legitimate government of China. Reagan needed a process of rationalization before he became
comfortable with the idea of visiting China. “And we have made it plain that in continuing and trying to build this friendship with the People’s Republic of China on the mainland, we in no way retreat from our alliance with the Chinese on Taiwan.”
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 479-80
Jul 2, 1991
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