The Reagan Administration and the End of the Cold War, II
The Reagan Administration and the End of the Cold War, II

Summary/Abstract: On November 4, 1980 Reagan won a sweeping victory, carrying 489 electoral college votes to Carter’s 49, a decisive ten to one margin, and 51% of the popular votes to 41% for Carter. Reagan ran on a platform that called for a decisive foreign policy, “peace through strength”, a clear break with Carter’s “vacillating” policy of “chaos, confusion and failure”. This concept aimed at reversing the decline of the U.S. power relative to the Soviet Union’s, establishing the U.S. as the leader of the “free world” in the fight against communism, because “the President’s failure to shoulder the burden of leadership in the Western alliance has placed America in danger without parallel since December 7, 1941”. But most importantly it aimed at restoring “to our great nation its self-respect, its self-confidence, and its national pride”. It was basically a policy of confrontation.

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