White Suburban Punk

Monday, November 9 marks the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and with it, the end of the Cold War.  In the United States, this event is widely credited to President Ronald Reagan.  This represents a good time to examine the reasons for the end of the Cold War and Reagan’s legacy, 20 years after his term as president ended.

Reagan took over from Jimmy Carter at a time when the United States faced what has been termed a “crisis of confidence”, amid the Iranian Hostage Crisis and economic turmoil, including an oil crisis.  What led to the hostage crisis, and what did Reagan do about Middle East relations?

In 1952-53, Mohammed Mossadeq, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, began the process of nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian oil company, a policy which had the full support of the Iranian people.  Democrat Harry Truman’s administration tried to help in negotiations between Britain and Iran, but as negotiations stalled, Republican Dwight Eisenhower replaced Truman.  In the spring and summer of 1953, the CIA helped organize a coup of Mossadeq from the US Embassy in Tehran.  Mossadeq was imprisoned and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was installed.  The Shah attempted a rapid westernization of the country during a brutal reign marked by significant US support.  This continued until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, in which the Shah was removed and anti-American cleric Ayatollah Khomeini was installed as Supreme Leader.  The Iranian revolutionaries wanted the exiled Shah returned to the country to face trial and execution, while the Shah requested treatment for cancer in the US.  Carter agreed, but the Iranian revolutionaries used this to show that the Shah was a puppet of the US and thus provided justification for the storming of the American Embassy by radical students.  52 US diplomats were held hostage for 444 days, until they were finally released on January 20, 1981, Reagan’s inauguration day. 

Reagan took office during the first significant economic downturn in the US since World War II.  There was slow growth and high inflation, and from 1976 forward, US imports have always exceeded exports.  In addition, the oil shock of 1973 resulted in a 40% spike in gas prices, shortages, and long lines at gas stations.  Carter wanted to end “this intolerable dependence on foreign oil”, calling for conservation and a national effort to develop alternative energy sources. 

Reagan, however, promising a “morning in America”, promised to pare down bureaucracy, reduce federal spending, and cut taxes.  His answer to the oil crisis was “more domestic production of oil and gas”.  Think “drill baby, drill”.  In his inaugural address, he stated: “For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present.  To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.”

The results were far different from the rhetoric.  According to the US Dept of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2007, during the Carter years, the federal deficit averaged $54.5 billion annually, under Reagan, $210.6 billion.  Federal spending was $590.9 billion in 1980, $1.14 trillion in 1989.  The federal bureaucracy grew by nearly 5% with Reagan in the White House.  During Reagan’s presidency, oil consumed domestically that came from abroad increased from 37% to 41% (US Department of Energy).  Tax cuts and the largest increase to date in peacetime military spending are the real legacy; unambiguous global military supremacy became the goal.

Returning to the Middle East, Iraq invaded Iran in September, 1980.  There was a long history of border disputes, and Saddam Hussein feared a Shia insurgency among Iraq’s repressed Shia majority, influenced by the Iranian Revolution.  The Reagan administration provided intelligence, loan guarantees, and other support to Saddam, and the war lasted throughout Reagan’s presidency.  However, Reagan also took the other side, as the Iran Contra Affair exposed the White House for secretly and illegally providing weapons to Iran.  The war finally ended in 1988, and in 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. 

Operation Desert Storm, under President George H.W. Bush, expelled Iraq from Kuwait and resulted in a permanent US military presence in the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia.  Many Muslims saw the US as an occupying force, which was especially offensive in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest shrines.  This “offense” was answered in horrible fashion on September 11, 2001 in the United States.

On the Cold War front, as noted above, Reagan presided over the largest increase in peacetime military spending.  However, the Cold War did not end simply because of this buildup.  Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union in 1985, when Reagan was already a lame duck president.  If Gorbachev had wanted to continue the Cold War, he could have simply waited for the next president before giving in to the military buildup.  Reagan and Gorbachev signed several landmark weapons treaties, and in a 1988 speech to the United Nations, Gorbachev explicitly rejected the Brezhnev Doctrine, which the Soviets had used to justify military intervention in satellite countries.  He then announced unilateral measures to reduce Soviet armed forces and remove troops from Eastern Europe.  He realized he couldn’t continue to spend 20% of GDP and 40% of his budget for military spending. Reagan’s military buildup created incentives for Soviets to negotiate arms reductions, but they didn’t have to do it, and they didn’t have to go as far as they did.

Reagan’s other legacy that resounds today was his policy on Afghanistan.  The Soviets began their deployment of troops in 1979 under Leonid Brezhnev and completed their troop withdrawal in 1989 under Gorbachev.  The Reagan administration supported the Islamist extremists against the Soviet Union with billions in weapons and ammunition. The American taxpayer was a very significant factor in their victory.  According to the 9/11 Commission, “a decade of conflict in Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989, gave Islamist extremists a rallying point and a training field.”  We no longer refer to them as “freedom fighters”, as Reagan did. 

The drum of Reagan’s legacy certainly beats loudly today.  The US is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, relations with Iran are essentially nonexistent, and once again a president is calling for energy conservation and a national effort to develop alternative energy sources.