Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War,

Study Guide: Gillon Chapter 13, pp. 306-318; Chapter 15 (All)

• What were Reagan’s primary concerns/fears in terms of America’s foreign relations?
• What was his policy toward America’s military power?
• Were his policies toward the Third World more along the lines of Nixon or Carter? What was his policy toward South Africa?
• Why did the peace/anti-nukes movement revive in the early 80s?
• What was SDI, why did Reagan advocate it, and why was it controversial? How did the rest of the world react?
• Who was Gorbachev, and what ideas did he represent?
• What relationship (formal & informal) did Reagan and Gorbachev form, and why was it significant for US-Soviet relations?
• What was Reagan’s stance toward U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and how did it affect his foreign policy decisions?
• Why did Reagan administration support the repressive regime in El Salvador?
• Who were the “contras” in Nicaragua and from where did they get support? How did Congress react?
• How did Reagan publicly announce that he would deal with terrorists? Privately, how was he trying to secure release of American hostages?
• How did the Reagan administration pay for its aid to the Nicaraguan contras?
• How did Oliver North defend his actions? Who/what did he criticize?
• What does Gillon say is “perhaps Reagan’s chief legacy”? Why did the deficit soar?
• According to Gillon, how does Reagan’s legacy create a paradox?

• Describe the major changes occurring in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990.
• What was the U.S.’s role in these events? What dilemmas did it face?
• In what ways did traditional U.S. Cold War – containment policies diminish in the early 90s?
• How did Bush define a “new world order”? What did he identify as “the gravest domestic threat facing our nation today”, and who was identified as the worst offender?
• In 1989,what was America’s largest military operation since the Vietnam War?
• How did the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989 affect U.S.-China relations and expose a dilemma in America’s foreign policy approach?
• What are the two reasons given for why Iraq invaded Kuwait? What reasons does Gillon give for why Bush wanted to stop the invasion?
• What arguments did Democratic dissenters give for opposing the Persian Gulf War?
• Did the UN and international community support the war?
• How did the press cover the war?
• Was the war initially popular or unpopular with the American people? How about after all was done?