The Cold War and U.S. Diplomacy: The Reagan Doctrine and Central America

Ronald Reagan assumed the office of the President of the United States in January 1981. Throughout the entire eight years during which he subsequently held office, foreign policy would be a centerpiece of his administration. Reagan was a Cold War hawk, and the relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was the primary focus of all of the foreign policy initiatives of the Reagan administration. The set of foreign policy objectives pursued by the Reagan administration during the 1980s came to be known as the “Reagan Doctrine.” The views of President Reagan and officials within his administration were controversial, and often unpopular, within both the domestic United States and in the international arena. Yet the Reagan administration steadfastly pursued its agenda even in the face of often rather serious criticism.

The defining characteristic of the Reagan Doctrine was the shift in focus from “containment” of Soviet expansionism, and the spread of communism through business, governments, and other aspects, generally, towards “rollback” of the gains of international communism (Wilson, 2013). This was a sharp departure from U.S. Cold War policy as it had been managed since its beginning in the late 1940s. The Reagan Doctrine also involved a more confrontational approach to U.S.-Soviet relations. Previous administrations had been more hesitant to adopt such an approach out of fear of provoking a potential nuclear war. As a core element of the Reagan Doctrine’s implementation, the United States began aggressively sponsoring anti-communist insurgent movements and increasing aid to client states with a hard anti-communist line.

The Cold War policies associated with the Reagan Doctrine proved to be extraordinarily controversial. Critics of the Reagan Doctrine regarded the administration as having assumed a belligerent stance that increased the likelihood of a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Critics also argued that Reagan’s “rollback” policy of arming insurgents on a worldwide basis risked the escalation of the Cold War into a “hot war,” and the potential outbreak of a third world war similar to the two wars of this kind the world had experienced earlier in the twentieth century (Hey, 2006). Additionally, it was argued by critics that the policies pursued under the Reagan Doctrine displayed a flagrant disregard for human rights considerations. It was pointed out by these critics that the regimes supported by the Reagan administration often suppressed basic freedoms, and engaged in the repression and sometimes murder or torture of political dissidents. Further, it was pointed out that the anti-communist guerrilla forces supported by the Reagan administration often engaged in the commission of atrocities and severe human rights violations. However, supporters of the Reagan Doctrine often hailed Reagan as a visionary and considered his aggressive anti-communism to be a crusade against repression, human rights violations, and military aggression perpetrated by communist regimes and insurgent forces.

Nowhere were these controversies and conflicts more evident than in the dispute over the Reagan administration’s policies in Central America. American foreign policy in Latin America during the Reagan era focused primarily on three countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Both Guatemala and El Salvador were ruled by hard-line anti-communist regimes during the 1980s, and the Reagan administration dramatically escalated aid to both regimes. The Guatemalan military dictatorship of General Rios Montt received over ten million dollars in military aid during the years of 1982-1983 alone. President Reagan himself paid a visit to Guatemala in December 1982 where he lavished praise on Montt and his regime. During this time, Montt was pursuing a policy of genocide against the indigenous Mayan people of Guatemala (Kempe, 1990). Decades later, Montt was placed on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to eighty years in prison in May 2013.

A civil war was raging in El Salvador during the 1980s, a war that had begun in 1979 during the Carter administration. The war pitted the left-wing insurgent alliance of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) against the government. The Salvadoran regime was split into two factions: the ruling military represented by the far right-wing Republican National Alliance (ARENA) and the centrist Christian Democrats. The Salvadoran military was notorious for its human rights violations, and routinely massacred civilians and engaged in the assassination of political dissidents, including the Archbishop of the Catholic Church, Oscar Romero. During the 1980s, the Reagan administration provided approximately six billion dollars in military aid to the Salvadoran regime (Wilson, 2013). During the course of the civil war, an estimated seventy thousand people were killed, eighteen thousand disappeared, and over one million were left homeless.

Nicaragua had experienced a revolution led by the leftist Sandinista guerrillas, who deposed the American-backed dictator Anastosio Somoza in 1979. Overthrowing the Sandinista regime became a priority issue for the Reagan administration when Reagan assumed office in 1981. The administration began providing substantial amounts of aid to the Contra guerrilla forces comprised largely of former members of Somoza’s National Guard. The Contras were likewise notorious for their disregard for human rights and engaged in atrocities similar to those committed by the military in El Salvador (Kempe, 1990). The Contra insurgency led the Sandinista regime to suspend many civil liberties and declare a state of emergency.

Human rights violations by the Contra forces led the U.S. Congress to enact the Boland Amendment through a series of legislation passed between 1982 and 1984. The Boland Amendment prohibited the U.S. government from providing military aid to the Contra forces. U.S. intervention in Nicaragua and other Central American countries likewise remained unpopular with the American public, with opinion polls indicating that nearly three-quarters of Americans were opposed to such intervention. Subsequently, the Reagan administration began supplying weapons to the Contras through illegal means. One method included the illegal sale of weapons to the Iranian regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, ostensibly an enemy of the United States, and diverting the profits from the arms sales to the Contras (Scott & Marshall, 1991). These actions led to a scandal known as the “Iran-Contra Affair” and resulted in the criminal prosecution of several members of the Reagan administration.

The policies of the United States towards Central America under the Reagan Doctrine are still debated among foreign policy experts. Supporters of these policies suggest that they were a necessary part of Reagan’s campaign to “rollback” communist or pro-Soviet influences in the Cold War and that Reagan’s aggressive anti-communism helped to bring the Cold War to a close by the end of the decade (Wilson, 2013). Critics regard Reagan’s policies in Central America as a disaster for human rights, and efforts to achieve peace and social justice in the region. It is likely historians and political scientists will continue to debate these questions for some time to come.

References

Kempe, F. (1990). Divorcing the dictator. New York: Putnam.

Scott, P.D. & Marshall, J. (1991). Cocaine politics. New York: University of CaliforniaPress.

Hey, N. (2006). The SDI enigma: Behind the scenes of the Cold War race for missiledefense. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books.

Wilson, J. G. (2013). The triumph of improvisation: Gorbachev’s adaptability, Reagan’s engagement, and the end of the Cold War. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.