Topic 9: Reagan and Thatcher

Topic 9: Reagan and Thatcher

Reagan and Thatcher similarities

1.  Binary view of the world

a.  People: “us and them”

b.  issues seen in good/bad terms

2.  Patriotic triumphalism: restore tarnished national greatness

3.  Cold War warriors

4.  Populist, anti-elitist politicians

a.  Appeal to their party’s right wing base

b.  Despised and underrated by conventional elites before taking power

5.  Belief in ‘Victorian’ religious ethics and traditional ‘family’ values

6.  Dislike post-war Establishment

a.  Dislike of government regulation of the economy

b.  Dislike of trade union power

c.  Regard inflation as a worse evil than unemployment

d.  Willing to cut tax for wealthiest

Differences

1.  Reagan a consensus politician; Thatcher confrontational

2.  Reagan has charm and humour; Thatcher humourless

3.  Reagan relaxed work habits; Thatcher a workaholic

4.  Reagan self-made; Thatcher middle-class and Oxford-educated

5.  Nuclear weapons

6.  Budget deficits

7.  Falklands War and Grenada invasion

July 1981 Thatcher supports Reagan at Ottawa G-7 against criticism of his economic policies from Mitterrand (France) and Trudeau (Canada)

“Pierre [Trudeau] you’re being obnoxious. Stop acting like a naughty schoolboy.”

December 1981 Reagan announces sanctions against martial law in Poland

·  Include cancellation of pipe-laying equipment for Siberian gas

·  Reagan anxious to cripple the Soviet economy

·  Thatcher furious at the threat to British contracts and jobs

·  1983 compromise agreed

o  One strand pipeline agreed; instead of original two strand

o  Europe to tighten restrictions on technology exports to USSR

The Falklands War

US view: “Gilbert and Sullivan as told to Anthony Trollope by Alistair Cooke.”

March 1981 President Viola of Argentina state visit to Washington

·  US agrees to

o  end Argentine trade isolation

o  resume arms sales

o  cease criticism of human rights violations

·  Expects Argentine assistance in opposing left-wing regimes in Latin America

2 April 1982 Argentine invasion of Falkland Islands

8 April Secretary of State Haig in London to propose peace plan

·  Withdrawal of Argentine troops

·  British administration to return as interim authority

·  Negotiations over sovereignty

Thatcher compares the plan to Chamberlain and Munich

Reagan wants compromise

Argentine not willing to accept Haig’s plan

Caspar Weinberger, US Defense Secretary, provides essential help to Britain

·  Use of US base on Ascension Island

·  Aviation fuel

·  Sidewinder air-to-air missiles

·  intelligence and communication support

“It is impossible to exaggerate the contribution Weinberger made to our cause.” Sir Nicholas Henderson, GB ambassador in Washington

2 May Belgrano sunk

4 May HMS Sheffield sunk

Reagan asks Thatcher to halt and allow negotiations to continue in UN

21 May British troops land on East Falkland, 50 miles from Port Stanley

31 May Reagan proposes a “diplomatic initiative”

Haig wants Britain to “help the Argentinians to find a way out, short of total humiliation”

4 June Britain vetoes UN Security Council resolution calling for ceasefire

US also vetoes

·  Jeane Kirkpatrick (US ambassador to UN) announces that she should have abstained

·  Haig’s instruction to abstain reached her after the vote

·  Reagan admits to press at G-7 in Versailles that he didn’t know about the veto

8 June Reagan rides in Windsor Castle grounds with the Queen

Address to joint session of Parliament

Predicts that Communism will be “on the ash heap of history”

Disagreement between Reagan and Thatcher over attitudes to USSR and nuclear weapons

·  Reagan aspires to a nuclear free world

o  believes that MAD = either US surrender or annihilation

o  hopes to achieve the zero option on nuclear weapons

o  aims to crush the USSR economically by his arms build-up

·  Thatcher believes that

o  nuclear deterrence has worked

o  nuclear disarmament will leave Europe exposed to larger Soviet conventional forces

o  wants détente dialogue with USSR from a position of strength

The ‘new’ Cold War of the early 1980s

1.  Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979

a.  US exports of grain to the Soviet Union stopped

b.  USA refused to ratify SALT 2

c.  USA boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games, held in Moscow

d.  1984 the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympic Games

2.  The build-up of Soviet SS-20 missiles during the 1970s

·  The Cuban Missile Crisis made the USSR concerned about its nuclear inferiority to the USA

·  during the 1970s they built up the number of their intermediate missiles

·  The Soviet SS-20 missile

o  had a range of 5,000 km

o  could be fired from mobile launchers

o  each missile carried three warheads

3.  NATO’s response to the SS-20s

·  In Dec 1979 NATO decided to deploy US intermediate range missiles in Europe

·  108 medium-range Pershing II missiles

o  had a range of 1,500 km

o  could destroy underground command bunkers

·  464 long-range Cruise missiles

o  had a range of 2,500 km

o  were fired from mobile launchers

Nov 1981 Reagan proposes ‘zero option’ in Europe to USSR

·  willing to cancel NATO’s deployment of Cruise and Pershing to Europe

·  Thatcher opposed

·  Zero option rejected by USSR

·  But INF talks aimed at reducing their number began in Nov 1981in Vienna

In 1982 Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) began

·  SALT talks under a new name

·  concerned with long-range weapons (ICBMs)

8 March 1983 Reagan makes speech calling USSR “the evil empire”

23 March Reagan announces Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars)

Thatcher supports SDI concept

·  aware that it won’t be practical for a long while

·  alarmed the Soviet leaders, who feared their nuclear arsenal would be obsolete

1 Sept South Korean 707 airliner shot down by Soviet fighter

Nov 1983 the first Cruise missiles began arriving in Europe

·  USSR walks out of the START, INF and MBFR talk

·  considerable public protest in a number of western European countries

The Grenada invasion

Reagan worried that Marxist regime in Grenada will make it another Cuba

22 Oct 1983 authorises invasion

24 Oct Howe (Foreign Secretary) tells H of C that no US invasion of Grenada planned

·  Reagan request Thatcher’s opinion about invasion

·  Thatcher replies signalling her opposition

·  Reagan then informs her that invasion going ahead

25 Oct US invasion of Grenada takes place

·  Thatcher’s angry phone call interrupts Reagan’s briefing of Congressional leaders

·  Thatcher worried that US won’t consult before using its nuclear weapons

The Beirut bombing

18 April 1983 Reagan sends US marines as peace-keeping force

23 Oct 241 US marines and 62 French troops killed in suicide bombing in Beirut

Thatcher annoys Reagan by advising against retaliation for Beirut bombing

·  4 Dec US ignores Thatcher’s advice and bombs Syrian positions in Lebanon

·  French bomb Iranian positions in Lebanon

March 1984 US troops withdrawn from Lebanon

Islamic Jihad switch to kidnapping Western nationals

Rapprochement 1984

June 1984 G-7 in London

·  Thatcher sides with Reagan against criticism of US economic policy from Trudeau and Mitterrand

Reagan sympathises with Thatcher over Brighton bombing

Reagan quashes anti-trust investigation into BA

·  Thatcher wants to be able to sell off BA without blemish

Reagan, Thatcher and Gorbachev

Dec 1984 Thatcher meets Gorbachev

·  Gorbachev makes it clear that SDI prevents the USSR from accepting zero option

Dec 1984 Thatcher and Reagan at Camp David

·  Reagan reaffirms his commitment to SDI and zero option

Jan 1985 Reagan’s 2nd inaugural address

·  Reagan reaffirms his commitment to SDI and zero option

Feb 1985 Thatcher addresses Congress

·  Defends deterrence

15 March 1985 Howe compares SDI to Maginot Line

Dec 1985 Britain signs agreement with US to participate in SDI research

·  Thatcher agrees to stop criticism of SDI

March 1985 Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader

·  Soviet negotiators return to the START and INF talks in Geneva

Nov 1985 Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Geneva

·  Negotiations difficult: Reagan reaffirms commitment to SDI

·  agreements on trade, education, cultural and technology

·  arguments over Soviet involvement in Afghanistan and US involvement in Nicaragua

Oct 1986 Reagan and Gorbachev meet again at Reykjavik in Iceland

·  Gorbachev offers strategic nuclear cuts and abolition of INF

·  Reagan offers zero option on all nuclear weapons

·  Reagan refusal to abandon SDI ends talks

·  Thatcher furious at how close Reagan came to abolishing nuclear weapons, including Britain’s deterrent

March 1987 Gorbachev backs down over SDI in order to achieve INF agreement

Dec 1987 Reagan and Gorbachev sign INF Treaty in Washington

·  first treaty to agree to a reduction (as opposed to limiting the build-up) of nuclear weapons

·  each side agreed to eliminate all intermediate (range 500 to 5,500 kms) nuclear forces (INF) from Europe within three years

The bombing of Libya, April 1986

Reagan blames Gaddafi for terrorist attacks on Western targets, including Americans

“We had to do something about that crackpot in Libya.”

Jan 1986 imposes economic sanctions on Libya

Thatcher warns against sanctions and air strikes

5 April 1986 terrorist bomb in American nightclub in Berlin

8 April Reagan requests to use British-based F-111s against Libya

·  Thatcher initially stalls, but consents

·  Mitterrand refuses to co-operate

·  British acquiescence restores British prestige in the USA

July 1986 Britain rewarded with a new extradition treaty which prevents IRA terrorists from claiming asylum in USA

Iran-Contra affair, October 1986

Late 1985 US begins secret arms sales to Iran

·  hopes Iran will pressure its surrogates in Lebanon to release US hostages

Profits from arms sales routed to Contra rebels fighting Sandinistas in Nicaragua

·  violation of Congressional bans on aid to Contras

Reagan denies knowledge of funds being diverted to Contras

·  Nov 1986 Thatcher in Washington publicly backs Reagan’s integrity

·  Reagan criticised for not knowing what was going on in his government

July 1987 Thatcher visits Washington after her election victory

·  Publicly repeats her faith in Reagan’s integrity over Iran-Contra

·  Pugnacious defence of Reagan in TV interviews

·  Requests short-range nuclear weapons to replace INF: Reagan agrees

Subsequent arms control agreements

Gorbachev and Bush

·  Jan 1989 the MBFR talks in Vienna were revived

·  renamed the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) talks

In Nov 1990 the CFE Treaty was signed

·  limited the amount of military hardware on each side

In July 1991 Bush and Gorbachev signed START Treaty in Moscow

·  cut the nuclear arsenals of each side by 30%

·  set limits on the number of long-range missiles

Jan 1993 Bush and Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, signed the START 2 Treaty

·  further cuts in the nuclear arsenals of each side

·  but not ratified by the Russian parliament until April 2000

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