Entry
Entries A-Z
Reagan Doctrine
The foreign policy of President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1988. The doctrine defined the strict anticommunist stance of the Reagan administration. It supported aid against communist regimes (or those remotely perceived as such) in Third World countries. The doctrine was declared in President Reagan's State of the Union address in 1985, when he called on the citizens of the United States to defy the Soviet Union's influence in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The doctrine enforced the United States' alleged responsibility to support right-wing insurgencies, such as in Nicaragua during its long and bloody war, which came to be known as the Contra War (1970–1987). And yet, despite the billionaire levels of military support, the United States failed to create a sound military force in ...