Reagan Doctrine

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The Reagan Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy strategy in the 1980s that aimed to roll back Soviet influence by providing support to anti-communist resistance movements around the world.

Aliases (3)
  • Reagan Corollary to the Carter Doctrine ×1
  • Reagan Doctrine-era interventions ×1
  • Reagan administration foreign policy ×1

Statements (60)
Predicate Object
instanceOf United States foreign policy
foreign policy doctrine
aims rollback of Soviet influence
support of anti-communist movements
undermining Soviet-backed governments
appliesTo Afghanistan
Angola
Cambodia
Chad
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Grenada
Guatemala
Mozambique
Nicaragua
Poland
appliesToJurisdiction United States
appliesToPoliticalIdeology anti-communism
neoconservatism
countryOfOrigin United States
describedAs policy of supporting freedom fighters against Soviet-backed regimes
describedBySource National Security Decision Directives of the Reagan administration
endTime 1989
facetOf Reagan administration foreign policy
Second Cold War
followedBy Bush foreign policy toward post-Cold War world
follows Carter Doctrine
Nixon Doctrine
containment policy
hasCause U.S. desire to move from containment to rollback
perception of Soviet expansionism
hasEffect Iran–Contra affair
controversy over human rights abuses by U.S.-backed groups
escalation of proxy conflicts
increased U.S. covert operations
pressure on Soviet Union’s global commitments
support for Afghan mujahideen
support for Khmer resistance factions in Cambodia
support for Nicaraguan Contras
support for UNITA in Angola
hasPart covert assistance to resistance movements
overt military and economic aid
support for anti-communist insurgencies
inception 1980s
mainSubject Cold War
Soviet–United States relations
namedAfter Ronald Reagan
opposedBy Soviet Union
U.S. Congress members critical of covert wars
human rights organizations
partOf U.S. Cold War strategy
significantPerson Caspar Weinberger
Elliott Abrams
George P. Shultz
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Ronald Reagan
William J. Casey
startTime 1981
statedIn Ronald Reagan’s 1985 State of the Union Address
Ronald Reagan’s March 1983 speech to the National Association of Evangelicals

Referenced by (7)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Reagan Doctrine ("Reagan administration foreign policy")
facetOf
Reagan administration
foreignPolicyDoctrine
United States foreign policy
historicalDoctrine
Carter Doctrine ("Reagan Corollary to the Carter Doctrine")
influenced
Urgent Fury ("Reagan Doctrine-era interventions")
partOf
Reagan–Gorbachev summits
relatedDoctrine
Carter Doctrine
relatedTo

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