“The Most Important Place in the World”: The Reagan Administration, Democracy Promotion, and the Nicaraguan Revolution

Abstract

This chapter explores Ronald Reagan's vision for US foreign policy in a world defined by the global Cold War. It acknowledges the national security threat the United States faced after three decades of the Cold War. Reagan's vision of a US victory over the Soviet Union harked back to the bipartisan anticommunism of early Cold War US foreign policy. However, the implementation of a US approach to the Cold War would need to confront the inroads of liberal internationalists and contain the spread of communism overseas. The chapter highlights the importance of Reagan's human rights policy of the administration's aggressive approach to the Cold War. It explores the multifaceted conflict between the United States and Nicaragua in the final decade of the Cold War.