Reagan Doctrine
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The Reagan Doctrine was an important Cold War strategy by the United States to oppose the influence of the Soviet Union by backing anti-communist guerrillas against the communist governments of Soviet-backed client states. It was created partially in response to the Brezhnev Doctrine and was a centerpiece of American foreign policy from the mid-1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991.
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Reagan's definition
First explained in President Ronald Reagan's February 1985 State of the Union Address, Reagan said: "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives...on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua ... to defy Soviet aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense."
The Reagan doctrine called for American support of the Contras in Nicaragua, the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan and Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement in Angola, among other anti-communist resistance groups.
Perceived benefits of Reagan Doctrine
One advantage of the Reagan doctrine was the relatively low cost of supporting guerilla forces compared to the Soviet Union's expenses in propping up client states. Another was the lack of direct involvement of American troops. Drawbacks included the sometimes fickle support afforded by Congress in appropriating funds for anti-communist groups, especially in the case of the contras.
Advocates and opponents
The doctrine was supported strongly by foreign policy analysts at the influential, conservative Heritage Foundation, who helped define and politically advance it. While the doctrine was also supported by the U.S. Congress, many votes on critical funding for the doctrine were extremely close, making it one of the more contentious American political issues of the late 1980s.
Critics of the doctrine argued that it would lead to so-called blowback, inflaming Third World hostilities to the United States.
But conservative advocates of the doctrine argued that it served the foreign policy and strategic objectives of the United States and was a Cold War moral imperative against the former Soviet Union, which Reagan and many of his supporters labeled an "evil empire."
Arms flowed to the contras, Savimbi's UNITA and the Mujahadeen. In Nicaragua, pressure from the contras forced the Sandinistas into holding free elections, which they then lost. In Afghanistan, the Mujahadeen bled the Soviet Union's military, fostered discontent among the families of soldiers sent to fight the long-running war, and stirred up nationalist feeling in the Islamic-populated republics of the central USSR. All of these, advocates argue, were vital to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Critics assert that funding the Mujahadeen resulted in blowback in the form of terrorist cells, although Osama bin Laden's particular faction was funded by Saudi Arabia.
Origin of phrase
The term "Reagan Doctrine" was first coined by columnist Charles Krauthammer in an essay he authored for Time.