Political Leaders In The 80's Essay

The actions of political leaders in the 80’s would prove important in shaping our world today. In January of 1981, Ronald Reagan was elected to be the next president of the United States of America. Reagan was a conservative and at the time his rise to presidency was called the “Reagan Revolution”. The Reagan administration was extremely anti-communist, a result of the second Red Scare that took place in the 50’s, known as McCarthyism. Reagan also had direct involvement in these Red Scare tactics when he secretly gave the FBI information about Communist activity in the entertainment industry. In the Iran-Contra affair, the Reagan administration was caught selling arms to Iran, and using the revenue to fund a group of rebels in Nicaragua called
Ironically the Soviet Union was providing aid to the Iraqi’s as well, because they were angered at Iran for destroying their Tudeh party, which was Iran’s communist party. The chemical weapons supplied to Saddam’s army would later be used to cause 50,000 Iranian casualties. The political arena in the 80’s was marked by anti-Communist policies in the west coupled with the beginning of globalization. Islamism became a major political force in the middle east, and the series of wars and invasions in the region would give rise to various the dictatorships, monopolies, and radical groups we recognize today. The fall of the USSR would mark the end of a major communist superpower, signifying the adoption of right-wing policies all around the world. Though we generally like to think of the west as being the policemen of the world who never do anything wrong, several events that occurred in the 80’s make us question the legitimacy of the western states. We supported various entities that would go on to commit war crimes, silenced the political values of numerous nations and infringed upon their