International relations
U.S. Foreign Policy during the Reagan & Bush Sr. Years
There are 2 periods in foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan's administration, both associated with his presidential terms. In the first half of the 80s, Reagan pursued a rehabilitation program for US military superiority in the world, the revival of the power of military-industrial sector. Not surprisingly, the US foreign policy of the period was determined by power approaches of solving problems of international life. This was especially evident after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, martial law in Poland in 1981, as well as in connection with the deployment of Soviet SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe. The main landmarks of this course were armed actions against Grenada, Lebanon and Libya. In 1983, Reagan called the Soviet Union publicly in his speech before Congress as an "evil empire" and announced a "crusade" against it. According to the initiative of the Republican administration, in Western Europe were deployed cruise missiles and medium-range missiles; started the laboratory experimental work on the program "SDI" - Strategic Defense Initiative, threatened to transfer military confrontation in space. During this period, the US foreign policy defines by so-called "Reagan Doctrine" or "doctrine of neoglobalism", the essence of which was in the use of the US military machine against Soviet influence in the world, a global confrontation of the USSR, the rate on the right authoritarian regimes. Aggravated confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the strengthening of the arms race. The US-Soviet relations hit the wall of mutual mistrust and hostility.
Only in the second half of the 80s, after coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, both countries started to seek a way out of the impasse confrontation. Realistic tendencies in Soviet-American relations were outlined at the end of 1985, when the meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in Geneva, it was confirmed that there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence. The process of normalization of the Soviet-American relations in 1986-1988 had a profound positive impact on the entire international life, but it was not easy. However, the search for reasonable compromises on both sides, the reestimation of domestic economic and military-political values, which occurred in the Soviet Union and the United States, led to the signing, in December 1987, of the first post-war Soviet-US Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. There were undertaken a wide range of measures to strengthen mutual trust, to reach an agreement on fundamental approaches to addressing the reduction of strategic offensive weapons and a total ban on chemical weapons. Since 1988, the two sides entered into negotiations on the reduction of conventional weapons that culminated in the signing in November 1990 a large-scale document requiring a radical reduction in the level of military confrontation in Europe. Performance has improved US-Soviet relations was the first in post-war history a formal decision on the provision by the US government line direct assistance to victims of the earthquake in Armenia.
George H. W. Bush basically continued the policy of his predecessor. It was extended by the US-Soviet dialogue at the highest level in Malta (1989) and Washington (1990), where there was an evolution from the normalization of relations between the two countries to mutually beneficial cooperation, as reflected in the signing of 31 July 1991 agreement START-1 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). USSR destroyed 36% of nuclear weapons carriers and 43% of nuclear warheads; USA, respectively - 28% and 42%.
Acute political, ideological and ethnic crisis in the Soviet Union by the end of the 1980s, led to the disintegration of the state. It was succeeded by the Russian Federation, headed by Boris Yeltsin. In the framework of Russian-American relations, the Bush administration continued the policy of disarmament. In January 1993, the US President visited Moscow. After the meeting with the Russian leader, both presidents signed the Reduction Treaty (START-2).
The Vietnam War, which lasted intermittently for about 30 years, is one of the most known and bloody wars of the 20th century. It is divided into two stages: the struggle against the French colonialists and the war against the American intervention. Both periods have much in common with each other, while there are also significant differences.
First Indochina War was fought by France to maintain their Indochinese colonies. The main events of the war took place in Vietnam. Fighting also took place on the territory of Cambodia and Laos, but here they do not have any significant effect on the course of the war. In all cases, France, with the support of allies (since 1950 USA helped French troops), led the fight against the local communist rebels fighting for independence of their country with the support of China. In Vietnam, the war known as the War of Resistance, where Vietnamese forces, united under the umbrella of a political movement "Viet Minh" fought against the French colonial administration in 1945-1954. A key episode in the war was the victory at Dien Bien Phu Vietnamese. From 13,000th garrison 6000 people were killed and 7,000 surrendered. After this defeat, France gave up its military presence in Indochina. The war ended with the division of Vietnam into two independent states: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (with capital in Hanoi) and the Republic of Vietnam (with capital in Saigon).
However, the government of Ho Chi Minh did not stop supporting guerrillas in South Vietnam and communist rebel groups in Laos. After the failure of elections in both parts of Vietnam, in 1957 the war continued. The main ally of the South Vietnamese government was no longer France, but the United States. By the end of 1962 the number of US military advisers in the country reached 9,000, which, however, had no significant effect on the effectiveness of anti-partisan operations. Therefore, in Washington it was decided to increase the scale of the US military intervention. By the end of 1965 in South Vietnam was already 184 thousand American soldiers and officers at the end of 1966 - 385,000, in a year - 486,000.
However, this did not bring military success the Americans, so in May 1968 in Paris, negotiations began. They were frequently interrupted and accompanied by full-fledged fighting, but on January 27, 1973 in Paris, both parties signed the Agreement about the ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam. According to this document, the United States stopped bombing of North Vietnam and the withdrew from South Vietnam all its troops.
In 1975 Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese and Viet Kong troops. More than a million South Vietnamese who did not want to be ruled by the Communists, were evacuated by US ships and aircraft. North and South were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Summing up, the two Indochina wars had the common context of the struggle of popular among the people national Communist forces against foreign invaders. However, if the war against the French was an anti-colonial one, then fought with the Americans was already led by recognized state of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In contrast to France, USA had no desire to make Indochina its official colony. Also there were different amount of resources that was used by France and the United States to control Vietnam, even both failed to complete this goal.
Sources
DeMuth, Christopher C. The Reagan Doctrine and beyond. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1987. Print.
Smith, Curt. George H. W. Bush: Character at the Core. Print.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam, a History. New York: Viking, 1983. Print.
