Introduction / Bradley Lynn Coleman and Kyle Longley -- Part I. Ronald Reagan and the national security establishment -- Ronald Reagan's engagement and the Cold War / James Graham Wilson -- A question of morality: Ronald Reagan and nuclear weapons / Beth A. Fischer -- Beyond Cap the foil: Weinberger and the Reagan-era defense buildup / Ronald J. Granieri -- Transformative leadership on Capitol Hill: the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act / James R. Locher III -- Part II. The Soviet Union and Europe -- Gorbachev, Perestroika, and the end of the Cold War / Archie Brown -- For better and for worse: Ronald Reagan's relationship with Margaret Thatcher, 1981-1983 / James Cooper -- The sense of history: Ronald Reagan and Francʹois Mitterrand / William I. Hitchcock -- Navigating choppy waters: US-German relations during the last decade of the Cold War / David F. Patton -- Part III. Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East -- Ronald Reagan and the puzzles of "so-called Communist China" and Vietnam / Michael Schaller -- An obsession: the Central American policy of the Reagan Administration / Kyle Longley -- Toward an ecological frontier: environmental policy, economic development, and US-Mexican relations during the Reagan presidency / Evan R. Ward -- Stranger in a dangerous land: Reagan and Lebanon, 1981-1984 / Charles F. Brower IV -- Researching Reagan: a guide for scholars of national security policy during the Ronald Reagan presidency / Ryan Carpenter.
Summary:
Pundits and scholars alike have argued over President Ronald Reagan's legacy. Many consider him a charismatic, consummate leader who renewed American strength and defeated communism. To others he was an ambitious and dangerous warmonger whose presidency was plagued with mismanagement, misconduct, and foreign policy failures. The recent declassification of Reagan administration records and the availability of new Soviet documents have created an opportunity for more nuanced, complex, and compelling analyses of this pivotal period in international affairs. In Reagan and the World, leading scholars and national security professionals offer fresh interpretations of the fortieth president's influence on American foreign policy. This collection addresses Regan's management of the US national security establishment during the 1980s as well as the influence of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and others in the administration and Congress. The contributors present in-depth explorations of US-Soviet relations and American policy toward Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. This balanced and sophisticated volume reveals the complexity of President Reagan's foreign policy, clarifies the importance of other international actors of the period, and provides new perspectives on the final decade of the Cold War. -- Back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.