1980’s Foreign Policy

Iranian Hostage Crisis

• 66 US citizens held captive in the US Embassy in Tehran

• 52 were kept there for over a year (444 days)

• Islamic student extremists were holding them captive

• Ended in the signing of the Algiers Accords the day Ronald Reagan was sworn into office (January 19, 1981)

Proxy Wars

• Lebanon• Briefly Occupied

• Got PLO terrorists• Lost 239 marines

• Granada• Stopped communist Rebellion

• Libya• Muhammar Khadafi

• Public Enemy #1• El Salvador• Stopped Rebellion

• Nicaragua• US funds rightist rebels against

communist Sandinistas• “Boland Amendment”

• Banned direct military aid to Nicaragua

• Iran• Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew

Shah• America became enemy• Funded terrorists like Bin Laden

• No one took Responsibility

Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)

• Satellite missile defense system• Protect from nuclear ballistic missiles• Uses lasers• Stops missiles before

they enter US airspace• Broke technology boundaries• No one even dreamed

of anything like that before then

• Solidified US position as World Power

Fall of the Berlin Wall

• End of the Cold War• Arms race crippled

Soviet economy• Détente policy

• Welcomed Capitalism• Ended “Star Wars”• INF treaty• Removed missiles

from Europe• “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall”• Famously said by

Reagan• Berlin Wall Reference