U.S. HISTORY 1980-1991

The history of the United States (1980-1991) includes the last year of the Jimmy Carter presidency, eight years of the Ronald Reagan administration, and the first two years of the George H.W.Bush presidency, up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan was the 40^th President of the United States. Born in Illinois in 1911. 

Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate challenges Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall in 1987, shortly before the end of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan produced a major realignment with his 1980 and 1984 landslide elections. Regan’s economic policies ( dubbed “Reaganomic” ) and the implementation of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 lowered income taxes from 70% to 28% over the course of seven years. Reagan continued to downsize government taxation and regulation.

Reagan ordered a buildup of the U.S. military, incurring additional budget deficits. Reagan introduced a complicated missile defense system known as the Strategic Defense Initiative ( dubbed “Star Wars“ by opponents ) in which, theoretically, the U.S. could shoot down missiles with laser systems in space.

Reagan’s rollback policy of weakening Communist states in critical regions involved covert funding and assistance to anti-Communist resistance movements worldwide. Reagan’s interventions against Grenada and Libya were popular in the U.S. , though his backing of the Contra rebels was mired in the controversy over the Iran-Contra affair that revealed Reagan’s poor management style.

Reagan met four times with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ascended to power in 1985, and their summit conferences led to the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Gorbachev tried to save Communism in the Soviet Union first by ending the expensive arms race with America, the by shedding the East European empire in 1989. The United States emerged as the world’s sole remaining superpower and continued to intervene in international affairs during the 1990s , including the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.