The Reagan Presidency

A detailed discussion of domestic policy issues including the impact of the administrations tax decreases and tax increases supplyside economic initiatives aka Reaganomics fiscal and Fed policy especially around interest rates the impact of and debate over an increasing federal deficit bipartisan Social Security reform bipartisan tax reform the AIDS crisis the farm mortgage crisis and the

An indepth discussion on foreign policy including the Cold War superpower proxy wars in Central America and Afghanistan and new insights into Reagan administration policies in the Middle East Significant attention is given to President Reagans 1982 speech to the British Parliament to Reagans reversal of Americas policy of deacutetente to administration efforts to fund Contra forces in El Salvador

We begin in 1985 with Mikhail Gorbachevs rise to General Secretary of the Soviet Union Under this new leadership Reagan and Gorbachev orchestrated a major breakthrough in the longrunning Cold War by agreeing to a series of SovietAmerican summits Following success at the first summit in Geneva SDI became a major stumbling block at the second summit in Reykjavik But change was clearly underway as