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Government

What Would Reagan Do? Flashback on Anniversary of 1985 ‘Reagan Doctrine’

Feb. 6, 2013 3:04pm Glenn Hall

President Ronald Reagan set the U.S. on a new foreign policy path in his 1985 State of the Union address, when he outlined what came to be known as the “Reagan Doctrine” — a policy of supporting “freedom fighters” around the globe as part of a U.S. effort to contain the Soviet Union.

“Support for freedom fighters is self-defense,” Reagan said.

Today is the anniversary of that historic speech, and while the USSR is no more, the Reagan Doctrine might apply just as well to the modern war on terror, in particular the U.S. approach to the Middle East. Reagan fans will also know that today also is his birthday (he was born in 1911).

For those who may ask themselves “what would Reagan do” today? the answer may be found in his own words:

“Harry Truman once said that, ultimately, our security and the world’s hopes for peace and human progress “lie not in measures of defense or in the control of weapons, but in the growth and expansion of freedom and self-government.”

And tonight, we declare anew to our fellow citizens of the world: Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few; it is the universal right of all God’s children. Look to where peace and prosperity flourish today. It is in homes that freedom built. Victories against poverty are greatest and peace most secure where people live by laws that ensure free press, free speech, and freedom to worship, vote, and create wealth.

Our mission is to nourish and defend freedom and democracy, and to communicate these ideals everywhere we can. America’s economic success is freedom’s success; it can be repeated a hundred times in a hundred different nations.”

Following that doctrine, the Reagan administration supported proxy armies around the globe in an effort to curb the influence of the Soviet Union, supporting the contra movement in Nicaragua (leading to scandal of the Iran-Contra Affair) and Afghan rebels resisting Soviet occupation, according to the U.S. Office of the Historian.

To read the full text of Reagan’s 1985 State of the Union speech, visit The American Presidency Project from the University of California Santa Barbara.

You also can watch Reagan deliver the speech in this video clip from ABC News:

Watch More News Videos at ABC

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Comments (20)

berlet98
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:48am
When Will We Ever Learn? Should We Trust Snakes?

As a nationality, Americans are a generally peaceful people, even if we are too often forced to go to war. We are an optimistic people, even during these gloomy times. We are also an overly complacent, presumptuous, and trusting people, even when confronted by dire threats to our well-being and to our very survival as a nation.

And we’re not the first nation to suffer from over-complacency, presumption, or blind trust.

According to both Virgil and Homer, the ancient Trojans naively believed the gift of a big wooden horse was a sign that the Greeks had finally admitted defeat and over the ensuing centuries many countries and civilizations have been battered and bombed sometimes to the point of extinction because they were fooled into thinking their enemies either couldn’t or wouldn’t attack them.

Okay, the Trojan Horse may be more mythological than historical so aprime instance from the twentieth century: Although British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain assured his countrymen in September 1938 that he and Adolph Hitler had guaranteed “peace for our time” at Munich, that surety literally went up in smoke less than a year later when the world was again at war–and, if not for American intervention, the English might be speaking German today.

The late, great President Ronald Reagan didn’t invent the phrase “Trust, but verify” but he firmly believed andÂ acted upon that principle.

America is b

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vox_populi
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 7:05pm
“the Reagan Doctrine might apply just as well to the modern war on terror”

Kind of ironic, though, considering terrorists we’re currently fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan were former recipients of Reagan Doctrine aid. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, you know?

Look at the Contras in Nicaragua. Their “freedom fighting” activities included targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination, kidnapping civilians, torturing civilians, executing civilians (including children!) who were captured in combat, raping women, indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian houses, seizing civilian property, and burning civilian houses in captured towns.

Freeeeeeeeedooooooooom!

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 7:30pm
  Damn VOX! You’ve really got that John Kerry act down to a T.
  
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rja444
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 6:18pm
Now that is what a President is suppose to be like, Perhaps obama shoulsd take notice. Unfortunately there are to many differences for obama to even come close.

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DefyTYRANNY
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 5:15pm
Reagan is not all he is said to be.

He instituted the ban on Automatic weapons in 1986. That is enough to write him off for me.

We should be able to buy new Full Autos all day long if we have no criminal record. As opposed to the old Full Autos that we can actually buy, but are too expensive. He obviously was a Progressive at heart.

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- Lloyd Drako
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 5:20pm
  Guess you’d better get busy and marry a Kardashian, start a hedge fund, train hard to become a pro athlete, write the next Harry Potter or Twilight, or invent a cure for cancer, so you can make lots of money and buy Full Autos (love the caps!) all day every day for the rest of your life!
  
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- NewMedia
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 5:22pm
  While I certainly agree that he was on the wrong side of the gun control issue, there were many things he did that would be a serious breath of fresh air compared to what’s happening today. Just saying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z85X6im-4Qs
  
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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 5:07pm
Ronald Reagan would probably be joking about how he had won the war with Iran a couple of years ago, and that bombing of Mexico would commence in ten minutes?

You realize of course, that was a joke? But you know somewhere there is an alternative universe, where that happened?

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Nevermind
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 3:46pm
Ask an older Marine how they feel about Reagan! They will tellyou he is a coward, when he cut and run from Beiruit over the barricks bombing. We snuck out in the middle of the night like cowards and the MArines were pissed

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Nevermind
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 3:32pm
Too bad those “freedom fighters” decided to attack the USA, thanks alot. Some of those “freedom fighters” were Mujahideen which is Al Queda. Al Queda translated is ” the base” and it is a database of those Mujahideen. Thanks again buddy

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BryanB
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 3:30pm
Why bother to post anything on the Blaze, their just going to remove it !!!!!!!!

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- whatthecrazy
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 4:50pm
  I am missing some stuff too..ticks me off to waste my time.
  
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whatthecrazy
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 3:28pm
I miss him.

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Steelhead
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 3:21pm
1985- That’s the year Bonzo went to Bitburg

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pap pap
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 3:21pm
Reagan never was trying to be ruler of the world like Obama is. Reagan just didn’t want anyone to rule him or our country and he believed that all should be able to enjoy the freedoms that we used to have here in America.

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- Lloyd Drako
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 5:11pm
  How is it that Obama is “trying to be ruler of the world” when he is constantly being accused of wanting to gut the military, abandon allies, lead “from behind” and downsize America’s influence here, there and everywhere? Please make up your minds.
  
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REPUBLICANINCALI
Posted on February 6, 2013 at 3:16pm
He had his flaws but spoke the truth more than most.

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 4:19pm
  You also have to remember that he faced a heavily Democrat stacked Congress to deal with. To get some of the things done that he wanted he had to compromise at times. Not like Dear Leader today.
  
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- Lloyd Drako
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 6:13pm
  RJJinGadsden: It seems to me that Obama has compromised a great deal, especially if you take the position that he is a socialist in his heart of hearts. Obamacare is a monstrosity born of his unwillingness to go for single-payer. On financial regulation, the deficit and the debt, and many other matters he is accused by the left of knuckling under. Many of his appointments have stalled. In the 1980s the Democrats controlled both houses, today it’s enough for the Republicans to control only one and threaten filibuster in the other.
  
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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 7:27pm
  LORD DRAKO, 0bama’s only compromise is to be incremental. Even when that is too slow for him, his anger comes out.
  
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