HIST 17C Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Arms Control, Arab Nationalism, Morality Play
Ronald Reagan
➔As popular a President as FDR
◆Won two Presidential elections due to:
◆“Reagan Democrats” : 50% of blue collar whites/white ethnics (Jews, Catholics)
◆Southern Democrats in the process of leaving the Democratic Party
◆The religious right
◆The New Right
◆Economic conservatives (big business and wealthy)
◆Anti-communist and foreign policy hawks
➔Achievements
◆Revived patriotism
◆Rebuilt the military
◆Ended the Cold War
◆Promoted the free market and entrepreneurship
● Cut taxes and deregulated industry
◆Cut inflation and unemployment and increased the number of wealthy
◆Was as successful as FDR in changing the mood of the country
● “What I want to see above all is that this remains a country where
someone can get rich”
➔Beliefs
◆Big government was bad
◆The military was good
◆The purpose of foreign policy was to defeat communism
◆Cutting taxes would make Americans rich
Economics
Reaganomics: stimulated the economy and created prosperity
➔Supply-side economics: 25% tax cut over 3 years to allow people to spend more money
and boost the economy
➔Decrease gov’t spending and ended Keynesian deficit spending
➔Americans made more money
➔US had double-digit inflation (increase in price between 10-99%) and high
unemployment when Reagan took office
◆When he left, inflation was at 4% and unemployment dropped from 6.9% to 5%
Neoliberalism
➔The assumption that individual freedoms are guaranteed by freedom of the market and
of trade
◆The freedoms it embodies reflect the interests of private property
➔Requires the removal of controls deemed as barriers to free trade
◆Tariffs, regulations, restriction on capital flows and investment
➔Reagan promoted free markets and individual initiative de-regulating industry
Critics of Reagan
find more resources at oneclass.com
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➔Widened income gap between rich and poor (destroyed the middle class)
◆Before Reagan the rich paid 74% of their income in taxes → CEOs made 30x as
much as workers
◆Reagan cut taxes on the rich to 28% → CEOs made 373x as much as workers
● No middle class → 10 million “working poor”
➔Increased homelessness and AIDS
◆Funding cuts to gov’t housing projects for low-income families and Vietnam
veterans
➔Tripled national debt
◆US imported more than it exported
➔Accelerated process of deindustrialization
◆Companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheaper labor → newly de-
industrialized region switches to a service economy (high unemployment)
◆Prosperity of the 50s and 60s rested on US isolation from pressure of
international competition
● Goods made in the US were sold without foreign competition
● In 70s, globalization increased → world intruded on US economy →
imports rose
➔Deregulation created a crisis in the Savings and Loan industry that cost US taxpayers
billions to bail them out
◆Resulted in the 90s recession
◆Result of insufficiently regulated S&Ls engaged in risky speculations and huge
losses
● Depositors were compensated with taxpayer funds
Reagan’s second term
US secretly sold weapons to Iran to back Saddam Hussein
➔Diverted profits from sale of arms to aid contras fighting Cuban-linked Sandinistas
◆Did this despite the fact that Congress had enacted legislation prohibiting the
Executive Branch from providing aid to contras
➔Instead of impeaching Reagan, Congress accepted a report by the Tower Commission
◆Said that Reagan was the victim of his management style which was
characterized as confused, detached, disengaged, and lazy
➔Signing of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) with Gorbachev saved Reagan
from public disdain from Iran-Contra
◆First treaty to provide for actually reducing the number of nuclear weapons in
existence
Foreign policy PHASE 1
➔Mistrust of communism and tough stance towards it
➔World politics were seen as a morality play between good US and bad USSR
◆Denied that nuclear weapons required mutual accommodation such as arms
control
● Compromise with the Soviet Union was seen as US selling its soul to the
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Reagan democrats : 50% of blue collar whites/white ethnics (jews, catholics) Southern democrats in the process of leaving the democratic party. Cut inflation and unemployment and increased the number of wealthy. Was as successful as fdr in changing the mood of the country. What i want to see above all is that this remains a country where. The purpose of foreign policy was to defeat communism. Supply-side economics: 25% tax cut over 3 years to allow people to spend more money and boost the economy. Decrease gov"t spending and ended keynesian deficit spending. Us had double-digit inflation (increase in price between 10-99%) and high unemployment when reagan took office. When he left, inflation was at 4% and unemployment dropped from 6. 9% to 5% The assumption that individual freedoms are guaranteed by freedom of the market and of trade. The freedoms it embodies reflect the interests of private property. Requires the removal of controls deemed as barriers to free trade.
