THE REAGAN RESTORATION
THE RESTORATION OF PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP
Jimmy Carter on the Crisis of Confidence in GovernmentTHE RESTORATION OF THE LIMITED INTEREST STATE
Reaganomics and the Federal BudgetTHE RESTORATION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE
The Reagan Counterinsurgency Campaign
Reagan on Star WarsTHE SOCIAL AGENDA OF THE REAGAN RESTORATION
THE RESTORATION OF PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP
The Crisis of Confidence in Government
In the summer of 1979, as he prepared for his reelection campaign, Jimmy Carter reflected on the frustrations of his presidency in a televised address to the nation. Carter was already sensing the loss of support that would lead to his rejection at the polls in 1980. But he argued that the problems of government went deeper than his administration, that the nation was experiencing a "crisis of confidence."
Carter was largely accurate in his analysis, though this did not help him in his reelection campaign. The series of scandals commonly referred to as Watergate deeply shook popular confidence in government. Richard Nixon was the first president in American history to be forced to resign in disgrace. The image of the president as the altruistic leader of a virtuous government that had been cultivated through the twentieth century was shattered.
The decline in popular faith and trust in government in the 1970s could be observed in people's responses to public opinion polls. In the 1950s and early 1960s, when pollsters asked people whether they could usually trust the government in Washington to do what was right, roughly two-thirds would answer "yes." By the late 1970s the number of positive responses to this question was more like one-third.
Jimmy Carter on the Crisis of Confidence in Government
The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country the majority of people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. . . . Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping.
We were sure that ours was a Nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. . . .We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate. . . . We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until 10 years of inflation began to shrink our dollars and our savings.
What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. return to top
The decline in confidence in government directly affected the power of presidential administrations to lead the country. The Johnson and Nixon administrations began strongly but ended in political failure. Gerald Ford was a caretaker unable to win election on his own right. Carter was ineffective with Congress, was challenged for renomination within his own party, and was defeated in his reelection campaign. The defeat of two consecutive incumbent presidents showed that the president was no longer a transcendent figure in the American political system.The Great Communicator
Into this atmosphere of growing political and economic crisis stepped Ronald Reagan. The decade of the 1980s began with a new president committed to restoring American economic health, U.S. power abroad, and traditional values at home.
Ronald Reagan almost seemed sent from central casting to play the hero who triumphed over adversity and crisis. In an age when most people get most of their political information from television, Reagan's skills in front of the camera, developed not only in his film roles but also in his years as a television spokesman for General Electric, were invaluable. His ability to reduce complexities of modern bureaucracy to simple anecdotes and one-liners gave him the ability to communicate with ordinary people in a form they could understand. Once in office, his courage and humor in the face of an assassination attempt were endearing. He even joked with the surgeon, quipping, "I hope you're a Republican". He just seemed like a nice guy to most people.
Secret Service protects Reagan during assassination attemptThis agreeable personality, rather than the ideology he was espousing, was the primary basis for his political success. But it is also true that Reagan's political philosophy tapped many of the resentments and frustrations of the American voter. In the beginning of his term, Reagan's ideological consistency was clearly an asset. Answering the common charge that his ideology was too simplistic for our complex world, he often repeated, "There are simple answers to many of our problems—simple but hard." In place of the "malaise" of the Carter era, he offered optimism and elemental faith in America and its traditional values.
Reagan certainly restored much of the shattered credibility and faith in the presidency in his first term. In part because his strong ideology turned off liberal Americans, Reagan's approval rating among voters started lower than any recent president. It suffered serious decline during the severe recession of 1982-1983. But when prosperity was restored, so was the president's popularity with the voters. Like Republicans Eisenhower and Nixon before him, Reagan won a landslide reelection. Unlike Nixon, Reagan was able to retain his popularity throughout his second term.
Reaganism as Ideological Restoration
Reagan's political and policy successes led his more ardent supporters to talk of a "Reagan revolution." But it is certainly incongruous to think of such a militant social conservative and anticommunist as a revolutionary. A better characterization would be the "Reagan restoration." This term captures more accurately the spirit of the Reagan presidency. Ronald Reagan wanted to reverse the leftward movement of public policy in the 1960s and 1970s and to restore the policies that prevailed in a prior era. He rejected activist economic and social policies and sought to return to the philosophy of the limited state. He wanted to reverse the decline of U.S. power in the world by reviving the national security state and the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Reagan era can be compared with other decades when Republican presidents came to power after turbulent times under Democratic leadership. In 1952, at the height of the cold war and in the midst of the Korean War, Dwight Eisenhower ended twenty years of Democratic control of the White House and presided over the conservative decade of the 1950s. Similarly, in 1920 Republican Warren Harding swept to power on the slogan "return to normalcy," playing on popular revulsion with the carnage of World War I and the Democrat Wilson's determination to keep the United States involved in European power politics. The 1980s, 1950s, and 1920s were all decades characterized by Republicans in the White House, the ascendancy of corporate power and the private pursuit of wealth, and social and political conservatism. Weary of government activism in either domestic problems or foreign conflicts, many sought to return to values they believed characterized a simpler, more idyllic American past. Republican presidents were politically successful by appealing to this desire to restore an imagined past when times were better.
This campaign poster and slogan capture the spirit of the Reagan RestorationThinking of the Reagan presidency as a restoration also conjures up comparisons with other regimes that have sought to return their countries to some real or imagined former glory. There are some striking similarities between the spirit of the Reagan presidency and that of the DeGaulle presidency in postwar France, the empire of Napoleon II in mid-nineteenth century France, and the restoration of the emperor in nineteenth century Japan.
In each of these cases a country besieged by hostile outside forces and beset by internal turmoil turned to a leader who promised to return the country to its former greatness, security, and tranquillity. DeGaulle, like Napoleon II before him, came to power when France's status as a world power was in decline and internal dissent was rising. He, like Napoleon II, evoked in his countrymen memories of France's role as a world power and promised to return France to its former prominence by restoring its traditional values and institutions. Both men were able to solidify political coalitions that effectively governed France for decades. But neither was really able to slow significantly the decline of French power in the world.
The restoration of the Japanese emperor had some different twists. Like the French restorations, the emperor cult promised to bring back a prior golden era by returning the country to its traditional values and institutions. Like the French restorations, the emperor cult was successful as an ideology, creating a political system that governed for decades. But the twist was that the supposed golden era of previous emperors never really existed. The Japanese restoration promised a return to an imagined rather than a real past. Another irony is that under the emperor Japan rose to heights of world power undreamed of by previous emperors. The Japanese restoration was successful by invoking an imagined past, whereas French restorations were unsuccessful in restoring a real past.
Current Emperor Akihito of JapanFrom these cases it can be seen that restorations, like any ideological movement, rest partly on truth and partly on fiction. In some cases ideological restorations can succeed politically; they can renew the strength of a regime beset by internal and external crises. But it is rare for ideological restorations actually to return a country to a real past state of political grace. Ronald Reagan came to power in a period of economic crisis and decline of U.S. power. In the short to medium term he was able to restore prosperity and the perception of U.S. power. He was able to construct a political coalition that endured and ensured his political success. However, despite the surface prosperity, the Reagan years also brought the continued decline of the United States in the world economy, the weakening of key sectors of the economy, and the worsening of many social conditions in the United States. Although Reagan was politically successful while in office, it is too early to judge the place of his administration in history.
THE RESTORATION OF THE LIMITED INTEREST STATE return to top
The economic crises of the 1970s were major factors in the decline in confidence in government and the successive failures of incumbent presidents Ford and Carter to win reelection. In the 1980 television debates Ronald Reagan had asked the voters if they were better off after four years of the Carter administration. Many decided they were not. Reagan promised to restore prosperity by returning to the philosophy of limited government and putting faith in the "magic of the marketplace."
The Reagan administration moved quickly in its first year to set in motion its supply-side plan to revive the economy. Reagan skillfully utilized the traditional "honeymoon" period when a new president is generally given the benefit of the doubt by those in the political system who hope the new administration will prove successful. He used his considerable media skills in several appearances before Congress and the television cameras in 1981 to explain his economic program and sell it to Congress and the public. The assassination attempt in March that wounded the president also undoubtedly contributed dramatically to sympathy for the administration, just as the martyrdom of John Kennedy contributed to public sympathy for the Johnson administration in its first year.
The economic plan of the new administration was so closely associated with
Reagan's personal conservative philosophy it came to be called ReaganomicsReaganomics consisted of two main elements: monetarism and supply-side fiscal policies. Monetarism was based on the belief that the rising inflation of the 1970s had been caused by too rapid expansion of credit by the Federal Reserve Board, which regulates the number of dollars circulating in the economy. Monetarism was an elaboration of the old theory of "tight money," that inflation could be limited by limiting the total number of dollars in the economy. Monetarism argued that the expansion of credit, or the money supply, should be slow and steady—that the money supply should grow only as fast as the overall economy.
The president has no direct control over monetary policy, which is made by the independent Federal Reserve Board (FRB). But the president does appoint new members to the board, and the FRB often does respond to presidential leadership. In his last year in office Jimmy Carter had appointed a new head of the FRB, Paul Volcker, who was committed to tight money policies, so the incoming Reagan administration got full cooperation in its monetarist philosophy from the FRB.
The president plays a much more direct role in fiscal policy. Each year he submits a recommended budget to Congress. While Congress has the final say on all taxing and spending decisions, a strong president can use his powers in the legislative process to shape the outcome of budgetary decisions.
Reagan's proposals to implement his philosophy in fiscal policy consisted of tax cuts, cuts in domestic spending, increases in military spending, and cuts in the federal apparatus regulating business. Most dramatic were the supply-side tax cuts. The president called for 10 percent across-the-board cuts in income taxes in 1982, 1983, and 1984, and for additional cuts in business taxes. In a televised
Reaganomics and the Federal Budget
The Philosophy of Limited Government
Government policies of the last few decades [are] responsible for our economic troubles. We forgot or just overlooked the fact that government . . . has a built-in tendency to grow. Now, we all had a hand in looking to government for benefits as if government had some sources of revenue other than our earnings.
But in all these years of government growth we've reached—indeed surpassed—the limit of our people's tolerance or ability to bear an increase in the tax burden.
The Budget Plan
First we must cut the growth of Government spending.
Second, we must cut tax rates so that once again work will be rewarded and savings encouraged.
Third, we must carefully remove the tentacles of excessive Government regulation which are strangling our economy.
Fourth, while recognizing the independence of the Institutions, we must work with the Federal Reserve Board to develop a monetary policy that will rationally control the money supply.
Fifth, we must move, surely and predictably, toward a balanced budget. return to top
speech, using colored charts as props, Reagan presented the fundamental argument of supply-side economics to the nation. The economic stimulus of the tax cuts would be so great that rapid economic growth would be unleashed. This growth in the private economy would mean that government would have a larger economic base from which to draw taxes, and thus tax revenues would increase even as tax rates were reduced.In his budget message to Congress, Reagan also proposed a wide range of cuts in federal spending that would total $41.4 billion in 1982. Programs to be cut included subsidies to regional and local governments, federal subsidies to the arts and humanities, the synthetic fuels program, the space program, the postal service, and assistance to workers displaced by foreign competition. Programs for the poor were particularly targeted for cuts, including Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, and federal aid to education.
In a speech before a joint session of Congress, Reagan outlined several key exemptions from the budget cuts. Social Security retirees and veterans would not face cuts in their pensions. The safety net of programs for the "truly needy" would be preserved. The Pentagon would not share in the sacrifice; it would have its budget increased.
The president was assisted in his quest to pass his program through Congress by the fact that the 1980 election had produced Republican control of the Senate for the first time since 1954 and the largest contingent of House Republicans since the Nixon years. Combined with the "boll weevil" conservative southern Democrats in the House, the conservative ideological coalition passed a budget reflecting the president's priorities.
Congress giving Reagan a standing ovation soon after passing his budget plan largely intactThe final budget passed by Congress had spending cuts of $35 billion, an $18 billion increase for the military, and tax cuts for individuals and businesses cumulating at over $200 billion annually when fully implemented. Of the $35 billion cut from spending, nearly $25 billion came from programs to aid the poor, representing 70 percent of the total spending reductions.
The legislative year of 1981 proved to be the high-water mark for Reagan budgetary policy. Reagan's dramatic success in getting Congress to pass his budget priorities was not matched in subsequent years. The supply-side tax cuts did not produce immediate economic recovery. Instead, the tight money policy produced the worst recession since the Great Depression. By mid-1982 the monthly unemployment rate hit 11.8 percent, the highest level since the 1930s. In the 1982 election the Democrats picked up 24 House seats, although they could not regain control of the Senate. But the gain of the votes in the House meant that the Democratic leadership now had effective control of the chamber, and any subsequent budgets would have to be negotiated with them.
Economic recovery did come in 1983, and not coincidentally the economy grew at a rapid 6 percent rate in 1984. But by then the fiscal and political climate had changed considerably. The honeymoon period was long gone. Congress had already made the easiest spending cuts; any subsequent cuts would be increasingly difficult politically. Annual federal deficits were climbing rapidly. The highest deficit in the Carter years was $74 billion, but the 1982 deficit was $111 and the 1983-1985 deficits averaged almost $200 billion annually. Over the course of the Reagan years, control of economic and budgetary policy shifted away from the presidency and back to Congress.
THE RESTORATION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE return to top
International Threats
In foreign policy, the election of Ronald Reagan meant the sustained attempt to restore the primacy of the national security ideology over the doctrine of hegemonic flexibility. It signaled a return to military force as the primary instrument of foreign policy, confrontation rather than detente with the Soviet Union, and pursuit of counterinsurgency in the Third World.
The 1970s had been a period of detente, of relaxing of tensions with the Soviet Union. Confrontation between the superpowers continued, but increasingly it was supplemented by negotiation on arms control and other issues of mutual interest. Conservative Republican president Richard Nixon had signed the path-breaking SALT I treaty with the Soviet Union and opened the door to relations with the communist government in China. Jimmy Carter had argued that it was necessary for Americans to give up their "inordinate fear" of communism in order to develop a constructive foreign policy. While military confrontation between the superpowers continued, rigid policies toward Soviet, Chinese, and other socialist regimes had been replaced by more flexible policies.
American hostages in Iran and the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan raised fears of declining American powerThe 1970s had also brought disillusionment with the theories of containment and active counterinsurgency against revolutionary forces in the Third World. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War had been based on the belief that it was America's responsibility to see that socialism did not spread through the Third World. But Vietnam had proved to be the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time, and thus it cast doubt on the strategy of counterinsurgency. Jimmy Carter's emphasis on human rights represented an attempt to establish new ways to project American values on the international scene beyond the use of military force.
But the 1970s was also a period of serious defeats for the United States in foreign policy. The Vietnam War was lost. OPEC manipulated the American economy, provoking major recessions. The decade ended on an ominous note with the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan and the Iranians holding Americans hostage in Tehran.
The Reagan administration came to power believing that the United States was in even deeper crisis in its international position than in domestic affairs. The Reagan campaign painted a picture of an alarming decline in U.S. power and prestige in the world. It attributed this decline to the policies of detente and the failure to maintain American military strength.
The Republican platform of 1980 argued that the Carter administration had allowed the Soviet Union to seize decisive military superiority, that
Since 1977, the United States has moved from essential equivalence to inferiority in strategic nuclear forces . . . threatening the survival of the United States and making possible . . . political coercion and defeat.The Republicans pledged to return the United States to a position of"military superiority." The Republican platform expressed this anger at the weakening of the United States and outrage at terrorist incidents and hostage situations.
Never before in modern history has the United States endured as many humiliations, insults, and defeats as it has during the past four years: our ambassadors murdered, our embassies burned, our warnings ignored, our diplomacy scorned, our diplomats kidnapped.Terrorism and the Revival of Global CounterinsurgencyThe outrage of Americans at incidents of international terrorism was the basis of much of the Reagan campaign to take a more confrontational and militaristic approach toward selected hostile governments. The combination of fear of the Soviet military and apprehension over the spread of socialism and radicalism in the Third World provided the basis for the revival of the doctrine of counterinsurgency against revolutionary forces in the Third World. By focusing national attention on attacks on American civilians, the Reagan administration reinforced the perception that ordinary Americans were in imminent danger from hostile forces in the world. Terrorist violence was portrayed as the work of crazed fanatics senselessly aimed primarily at innocent victims. Since fanatics cannot be reasoned with, the use of military force could be justified.
The vision of a worldwide terrorist conspiracy plotting the demise of the United States proved to be the 1980s version of the monolithic communist conspiracy that was at the heart of the cold war. In one speech on antiterrorism policy, Reagan referred to a "confederation of terrorist states." Like the vision of the monolithic communist bloc, the idea of state terrorism provided the justification for U.S. action against hostile regimes.A Confederation of Terrorist States
Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua—continents away, tens of thousands of miles apart—but (they have) the same goals and objectives.
Most of the terrorists who are kidnapping and murdering American citizens and attacking American installations are being trained, financed, and directly or indirectly controlled by a core group of radical and totalitarian governments—a new, international version of "Murder, Incorporated." And all of these states are united by one, simple, criminal phenomenon—their fanatical hatred of the United States, our people, our way of life, our international stature.
Sandinista Nicaragua as a Terrorist Nation and a Soviet Base
The Sandinistas are transforming their nation into a safe house, a command post for international terror . . . The Sandinistas have even involved themselves in the international drug trade. . . . There seems to be no crime to which the Sandinistas will not stoop—this is an outlaw regime.
With a billion dollars in Soviet-bloc aid, the communist government of Nicaragua has launched a campaign to subvert and topple its democratic neighbors. . . . Using Nicaragua as a base, the Soviets and Cubans can become the dominant power in the crucial corridor between North and South America. . . . They will be in a position to threaten the Panama Canal, interdict our vital Caribbean sea lanes, and ultimately move against Mexico. Should that happen, desperate Latin peoples by the millions would begin fleeing north into the cities of the southern United States. return to top
The counterterrorism campaign picked out small and weak countries, which were described as part of a worldwide network backed by the rival superpower, thus justifying using U.S. military power against much weaker nations. Because these regimes were portrayed as being in the Soviet orbit, they were by definition totalitarian and not legitimate governments with any popular backing. Thus, to destabilize or overthrow them could be justified in the name of democracy and self-determination.
In public, the Reagan administration took a tough line on terrorism. In some cases, rhetoric was matched by the direct use of U.S. military force, as in the bombing raids on Libya and the invasion of Grenada. Both these actions were justified as counterterrorism. The Libyan raid was called retaliation for terrorist bombings, and the invasion of Grenada was ostensibly to rescue captive American students. In other cases, aid to insurgents fighting left-wing regimes was begun, as in Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan, and Indochina. But in certain cases where the adversary was powerful, secret deals were made, as in trading of arms for hostages held by pro-Iranian forces.
Counterinsurgency in Nicaragua
The proving ground of the revived doctrine of counterinsurgency was Central America. In 1979 the Sandinista revolution overthrew the corrupt dictator Anastasio Somoza, whose family had ruled Nicaragua with an iron fist and with U.S. blessing for nearly fifty years. The Carter administration had tried different tactics to deal with the Sandinistas. It had cut off aid to the Somoza regime because of its human rights record, aid it restored in the early months after the revolution. But as Marxists gained controlling influence in the postrevolutionary government, the Carter administration distanced itself from the Sandinistas.
When the Reagan administration took power in 1981, it labeled the Sandinistas as Soviet clients and began a campaign to eradicate Marxist influence in Central America. The United States started to stage large-scale annual military maneuvers in Honduras, just miles from the Nicaraguan border, as a warning to the Sandinistas. Covert action to form a rebel force, popularly known as the "contras," was begun. In 1984 U.S. involvement in the mining of Nicaraguan harbors and CIA training manuals on assassination and terror tactics became public. These revelations led Congress to cut off funds for any intelligence activities directed against Nicaragua.
Contra rebels training to overthrow the Nicaraguan governmentThere ensued a running political battle between the administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress over support for the contras. The administration sought to keep the aid flowing. When Congress cut it off, the Reagan administration returned each subsequent year to ask for renewal of the aid. In 1985 Congress did approve some military aid. But it is now known that members of the administration went to great lengths to maintain the aid even during the period when Congress had forbidden it. The secret, illegal diversion of profits from the secret, and probably illegal, sale of arms to the Iranians to fund the contras was just one example of the administration's attempts to evade congressional restrictions on its counterinsurgency campaign.
The Reagan administration felt justified in its support of the contras because it believed the Sandinistas were establishing a Soviet base on the Central American mainland. The Nicaraguans were portrayed as committed to both terrorist tactics and the ultimate triumph of the Soviet bloc over the West. Because the Sandinistas were defined as a serious military threat to the United States, a military response was justified. Because the Sandinista regime was seen as a totalitarian dictatorship, U.S. intervention into Nicaraguan internal affairs was called democratic.
However, there are other aspects of the Nicaraguan story that were absent from Reagan's public analyses of the situation. Nowhere in any Reagan speech was there mention of the U.S. occupation of Nicaragua for nearly two decades which only ended in the 1930s. Nowhere in any Reagan speech was there any admission that the United States was the Somozas' patron for forty years, thus earning the hostility of those who fought to overthrow his dictatorship. Reagan continually referred to Nicaragua as "on our doorstep," as if Central America belonged to the United States, an attitude more reminiscent of nineteenth century colonialism than of true concern with democracy in the region.
The New Cold War
In Reagan's first term his administration tried to restore another key element of the national security state: confrontation with the Soviet Union. He continued to give lip service to the calls for diplomacy and negotiation that had come to go hand in hand with the traditional anticommunism in foreign policy doctrine. Reagan had publicly opposed SALT II and every other major arms control agreement ever reached. But once in office he agreed to stay within its limits as long as the Soviets did. However, alongside the call for arms reductions was the fundamental hostility toward the Soviets that was characteristic of the cold war. In his first press conference, speaking without prepared text, Reagan reiterated his misgivings about the Soviets and his wariness of detente. The cold war was back.
One aspect of the new cold war was the issuing of a public document on Soviet military power that ultimately became institutionalized in a series of annual reports. Full of pictures of Soviet military hardware, these reports revived the image of the Soviet Union as an aggressive, warlike power seeking global military and political domination.
The Reagan administration revived fears of the Soviet Union as an aggressive threat to the United StatesReagan's cold war rhetoric was matched by action. The United States embarked on a massive military buildup. Adjusted for inflation, the Pentagon's budget increased by 8.1 percent in 1982, 8.6 percent in 1983, 5.0 percent in 1984, 8.6 percent in 1985, and 6.0 percent in 1986 for a cumulative increase of 41.8 percent. Reagan accelerated the arms programs planned in the later Carter budgets. A new generation of missiles was deployed in Europe, which gave the United States a new capability to make nuclear strikes deep into Soviet territory from bases in Europe. A new generation of more accurate nuclear missiles was deployed on the Trident submarines, making them much more useful as a first-strike weapon system. A new generation of cruise missiles was developed. The powerful land-based MX nuclear missile was revived, although controversy over its basing mode continued to delay deployment. Two new strategic bombers were put on line: the Stealth bomber, which was designed to evade Soviet radar detection, and the older B-1, which had been scrapped by the Carter administration. The navy was expanded to 600 ships.
The revival of the cold war drew opposition both at home and abroad. In the United States and western Europe, the peace movement was newly activated by fear of escalation of the arms race and heightened political tensions. NATO's deployment of a new generation of longer-range missiles that for the first time could strike into the Soviet interior from European bases was particularly controversial in Europe. In 1982 the Soviets canceled all arms control talks to pressure NATO to abandon such deployments. In western Europe opposition to the NATO strategy was manifested in the emergence of the antinuclear Green Party in West Germany, the prominence of disarmament forces in the British Labour Party, and similar developments in smaller states. The Reagan arms buildup also drew opposition in the United States. In the American midterm election of 1982, hundreds of ballot initiative campaigns were generated in towns, cities, and states proposing that the United States negotiate a freeze on the nuclear arms race. In November 1982, millions of Americans voted for a nuclear freeze, which carried virtually everywhere it was on the ballot.
Star Wars
It was in this situation of the breakdown of arms talks with the Soviet Union and growing opposition to the arms race in the United States and western Europe that Reagan offered his major innovation in nuclear doctrine, the Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star Wars." Since the Soviet nuclear arsenal began to match the destructive capabilities of the U.S. arsenal in the 1960s, U.S. nuclear doctrine had been based on the principle of mutually assured destruction or MAD. Mutually assured destruction means that even if one superpower launched a devastating nuclear first strike, the other would be assured of having enough survivable nuclear capability to wipe out the aggressor in a second strike. This should deter either power from launching an attack. SALT I and II were based on this principle.
But in March 1983, President Reagan made a bold new proposal to break out of the reliance on holding the world's people hostage to nuclear obliteration in order to maintain the peace. He argued that strategic defense was possible, that new defensive technologies could be developed to destroy incoming Soviet missiles and thus provide a protective shield over the American population in case of any attack. Star Wars represented an alternative to arms control. In a televised address to the nation Reagan presented his vision.
The image of an effective defense against hostile missiles was certainly a reassuring one to Americans who lived daily with the threat of nuclear annihilation. But most analysts questioned whether such a defense could successfully be constructed. Opponents argued that Star Wars was not so much a real response to the threat of nuclear holocaust as symbolic reassurance to a frightened public. Most members of the scientific community expressed significant doubts about its feasibility.The timing of the Star Wars initiative was instructive. The Reagan administration had been successful in getting Congress to approve the largest peacetime arms buildup in history. But political opposition at home and among the European allies was growing. The breakdown of the arms control process with the Soviet Union, which had been institutionalized over the prior 20 years, was reviving fears of U.S.-Soviet military conflict. It was in this atmosphere of heightened anxiety about nuclear war that the Reagan administration unveiled a proposed technological fix for U.S. vulnerability to Soviet nuclear capability.
THE SOCIAL AGENDA OF THE REAGAN RESTORATION return to top
Early Caution
One of the most important themes of Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1980 was to return the United States to traditional social values. As a candidate Reagan had decried the erosion of the American family, the continuing secularization of American society, and the rise of crime and drugs in the streets. Political conservatives had particularly opposed federal court decisions such as those which had asserted a woman's right to obtain an abortion and those which had established the principle of affirmative action for minorities and women in employment. Conservatives wanted to restore the legal and social doctrines that prevailed before the liberal Warren Court expanded national protections of civil rights and liberties.
In the early Reagan administration, social issues generally took a back seat to economic and foreign policy. With the magnitude of his economic and foreign initiatives, Reagan was not willing to risk his finite political capital on bitter battles over explosive social conflicts. The Reagan administration did use some of his executive and legislative powers to pursue the conservative social agenda. Reagan gave token support to attempts in Congress to amend the Constitution to ban abortion. But this approach never came close to garnering the two-thirds vote in Congress necessary just to start the amendment process.
Reagan adressing the convention of evangeilcal Christians. The Christian right was an important partof
Reagan's conservative coalition but their social issues got little attention in the early Reagan Restoration.The Reagan Justice Department reversed more than a generation of practice and consistently entered civil rights cases in the federal courts on the side of white rather than minority litigants. But the more conservative elements of the administration were stymied when they tried to block renewal of the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority participation in the political process. Congressional Democrats and even some northern Republicans stood firm, and rather than be seen as opposing the right to vote, Reagan acceded to renewal of the act.
The Strategy of Judicial Appointments
However, over the course of his term Reagan made use of his considerable powers regarding the judicial branch to pursue his social agenda. The most useful of these powers proved to be the appointment of federal judges. The judicial branch of the national government often makes the controlling decisions on some of the most difficult social issues, the very ones elected officials generally try to avoid because of the controversy they engender. The president appoints Supreme Court justices and other federal judges whenever vacancies arise, subject to confirmation by majority vote of the Senate.
All presidents have taken political party affiliation into account when selecting federal judges. The recent Republican hold on the presidency meant that by the end of Reagan's term the majority of federal judges and six of the nine Supreme Court justices were Republicans. But historically, presidents have selected judges reflecting the diversity of views in their party. The Reagan administration's departure from past practice came in the degree of ideological screening of potential judicial appointees. Blocked in the attempt to pursue its social agenda in Congress, the Reagan administration made sure its judicial appointments furthered its social agenda.
The Democrats have been able to use their control of Congress to blunt the impact of conservative Republican presidents on the judiciary. For example, the Democrats waited until Jimmy Carter won office to increase the number of federal judges, thus giving him disproportionate impact on the lower federal courts even as he was denied a Supreme Court appointment.
Democrats in the Senate also have used their power to confirm Supreme Court nominations. Early in the Nixon term they used their ability to reject nominees to the Supreme Court in order to keep Nixon from appointing segregationist Southerners, forcing the appointment of such moderates as Harry Blackmun, who wrote the decision legalizing abortion and Lewis Powell, who wrote the key decisions endorsing affirmative action.
Reagan deflect criticism of his conservative judicial appointments by choosing
the first woman Justice with his first appointment to the Supreme CourtIn his early years Reagan had one advantage over Nixon in his court appointments. The Republicans controlled the Senate, which must confirm nominees to the bench. Reagan's first Supreme Court appointment was masterful. By selecting Sandra Day O'Connor, Reagan diffused the most serious opposition to a conservative justice—that "he" would be insensitive to women's issues. Reagan got his second opportunity to name a Supreme Court justice when Chief Justice Warren Burger resigned in 1986. Burger's resignation came in time to allow Reagan to name a new justice, Antonin Scalia, and to elevate the very conservative justice, William Rehnquist, to chief justice while Republicans still controlled the Senate.
The Democrats recaptured the Senate in the elections of 1986, dramatically changing the politics of court appointments. When moderate justice Lewis Powell resigned in 1987, Reagan nominated the strong ideological conservative Robert Bork to fill the position. The Democratic Senate voted by a slim margin not to confirm Bork because he had such an activist agenda for reshaping legal doctrine. Only when Reagan nominated the more moderate Anthony Kennedy was the Senate willing to confirm.
CONCLUSION return to top
The early Reagan presidency can best be characterized as an attempt at ideological restoration. Ronald Reagan was able to revive the flagging power of the presidency and to some degree reverse the leftward trends of public policy in the 1960s and 1970s. In domestic policy he returned to the philosophy of the limited state, cutting taxes and many social programs. In foreign policy he revived the doctrines of the national security state, embarking on a major military buildup, taking a cold war stance toward the Soviet Union, and launching several counterinsurgency operations in the Third World.
However, as his first term progressed, Reagan's hold on public policy began to weaken. Although Reagan was able to win a landslide reelection, the ideological dynamics of his second term were different from those of the early Reagan restoration.
Links for the Study of President Reagan back to topWeb sites marked with * provided images for this chapter. Many images also are linked to the web site from which they originated.
White House links to all former presidents' official libraries a good linking point if you want to study the official documents of several different presidents
The National Archives links to all former presidents' official libraries Another route to the presidential libraries
*NAIL Digital Images Search Search the National Archives and Records Administration for online presidential documents
Ronald Reagan.com an unofficial Reagan site. I have linked to the index of key speechesThe Ronald Reagan Home Page another unofficial Reagan site. I have linked to the index of key speeches
Ronald Reagan Legacy Project another unofficial Reagan site. I have linked to defenses of the Reagan Record
Ronald Reagan and the Soviets an unofficial Reagan site, focused on foreign policy. I have linked to the SDI page (SDI was Reagan's term for what is now called missile defense)
God Bless Ronald Reagan click a link quickly to avoid irritating music
Ronald Reagan: Insane Anglo Warlord anit-Reagan site. you are traveling through time and space...you're on a strange planet
Ronald Reagan: The Bonzo Years Bonzo the chimpanzee was Reagan's co-star in one of his early movies
Documents of the Iran-Contra Affair government documents related to the biggest scandal of the Reagan presidency
*A Pictoral History of Ronald Reagan An unofficial photo album of Ronald Reagan. Site may no longer be active
The George Bush Presidential Library
The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library
*C-SPAN State of the Union files watch State of the Union messages of presidents back to 1989. Transcripts of State of the Union messages available back to 1945
Inaugural Addresses The Inaugural Address is a key speech made when presidents are sworn into office. This site has them all
Speeches of the Presidents Inaugural Addresses, State of the Union Messages, and selected nomination acceptance speeches and war messages
The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden Highly recommended. Prepared by The Center for the Study of the Presidency, a leading group of scholars who study the presidency
Presidents of the United States Links to info on all American presidents. For each president it gives a brief biography, election results, cabinet members, chronology of major events, links to other internet biographies, links to key historical documents of the era, and other related links
The American President Biographies of each president and several essays on the presidency. Links to historical documents and other web resources. Each biography includes many links, including definitions of key terms
The American Presidency links to encyclopedia articles on each president and related subjects
Biographies of the American Presidents Biographies of each president. If the music file irritates you as much as it does me, click on the upper left to stop it
The Yale Law School Avalon Project Large collection of official papers on several presidential administrations. You can also find many international and congressional documents at their Major Collections page
Presidents' Day Links to resources on several key presidencies
Leadership Links on several presidents and articles on the presidency
The Political Resources Page Provides links for each president
University of Colorado Presidents Online Page links and explanations of many presidency web sites but too many dead links
