Reagan's Plan Research Articles

The United States and the Palestinians, 1977-2012

This essay, based on the author-s talk presenting a recent book, Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, examines the dynamics of U.S. policy formation on Palestine, mainly through the lens of three “clarifying moments” in the history of U.S. involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The first of these moments concerns efforts to revive and modify the Palestinian autonomy provisions of the 1978 Camp David Accords as an element of the 1982 Reagan Plan. The second examines Israeli-U.S. connivance during 1991-93 Madrid/Washington Palestinian-Israeli negotiations as revealed in confidential documents, and the third focuses on President Barack Obama-s retreat during the second half of his first term from positions staked out earlier. More generally, the essay looks at the underpinnings and continuity of U.S. policy and how it has evolved.

Star Wars All Over Again

ASIANPERSPECTIVE, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2001, pp. 227-238 Book Review STAR WARS ALL OVER AGAIN Peter Van Ness Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 592 pages. Two years ago, when Lee Teng-hui was still president of the government of Taiwan, I was invited with academic colleagues for what promised to be a delicious Chinese luncheon hosted by an official of the Taiwan government. Seated around a circular table heavy with beautifully-arranged dishes, we sat poised to begin. But before anyone could raise a chopstick, our host had a message for us. That moment of salivating anticipation has made my recollection of his speech especially sharp—presum­ ably, just as he intended! Think back, our host suggested, to the 1980s, during the early years of the Reagan administration, and to how the world at that time seemed to be locked into a coldwar nuclear stalemate. But then, he continued, just a few months after Reagan left office, the Soviet empire, and later the Soviet Union itself, began to fall apart. What was the key to Reagan's design that produced an end of the cold war and the victory over the Soviet Union? "Star Wars!" he exclaimed. Today, he went on, the main threat to peace in East Asia is 228 Peter Van Ness China, and the Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, are committed to building missile defenses. By this time, all of us knew precisely where his invocation was headed. He had China and missile defense on his mind. Some members of the Bush administration today appear to have similar thoughts on their minds. Frances Fitzgerald has written Way Out There in the Blue to refute my Taiwan host's understanding and what she sees to be other misconceptions about Ronald Reagan and the "strategic defense initiative," or SDI. One of the main conclusions of her research on Reagan's plan to build a shield to protect the United States from missile attack is that, contrary to much conservative opinion in the United States, it was not the U.S. commitment to build ballistic missile defenses that caused the collapse of com­ munism in the Soviet Union, but rather the incapacity of the Soviet command economy to compete and the unintended con­ sequences of the radical changes initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev that brought the Soviet system down. The Soviets never chose to try to compete with SDI because their scientists had told Gor­ bachev that they would only have to spend one-tenth of what the Americans spent to build a capacity to either neutralize or destroy a U.S. missile defense system (pp. 408 and 473-75). The story Fitzgerald tells is of Ronald Reagan, movie actor as president, proclaiming utopian proposals to shield the Ameri­ can public from ballistic missile attack, often described in heroic images drawn from his favorite films like A Wing and a Prayer, when in fact there was no existing technological means, then or now, to construct and deploy such a leakproof defense. Hardline conservative supporters pushed for SDI for their own ideologi­ cal purposes, even as the threat from the Soviet Union declined and the "evil empire" broke apart. Now, once again, a conserva­ tive Republican president of the United States, George W. Bush, has committed his administration to building missile defenses. On May 1, in a speech to the National Defense University, President Bush spelled out his "vision" of global politics and what he saw as the need for missile defense.1 He remarked in his opening comment on the presence of the administration's three top foreign and defense aides (Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Special Assistant Condoleezza Rice), presumably to convey the Star Wars All Over Again 229 impression that what he would say was supported enthusiasti­ cally and in unison by all of them. The President then painted a picture of a dangerous world, populated by tyrants "gripped by an implacable hatred of the United States of America." "They hate our friends," argued the President. "They hate our values. They hate...

The controversy over President Reagan's visit to Bitburg: Strategies of definition and redefinition

The controversy surrounding President Reagan's plan to visit the German war cemetery at Bitburg provides an opportunity to examine transformation and transcendence as rhetorical strategies of definition and redefinition. Reagan repeatedly sought to redefine the meaning of the unfolding situation and his own actions, but was largely unsuccessful particularly with his Jewish opposition, because he proceeded from a scientistic perspective while his opponents embraced a dramatistic perspective. The clash between the two perspectives and the resulting unacceptability of Reagan's redefinitions are apparent on three dimensions: time, space, and judgment.

Budget Crunch Stalls Super Collider

Budget Crunch Stalls Super Collider

The United States and the Status of Jerusalem 1947–1984

The United States has been involved in the question of Jerusalem ever since the American government assumed a major role in promoting adoption of the Palestine Partition Resolution at the United Nations in 1947. The continuing centrality of the Jerusalem issue in the Arab-Israeli dispute is attested to by the references to Jerusalem in the 1982 Reagan Plan for Peace in the Middle East. Even more significant is the fact that although the Jerusalem issue did not figure in the text of the 1978 Camp David Agreements, it was the subject of three separate letters appended to the Agreements by Prime Minister Begin, President Sadat and President Carter. In fact, it is no secret that the Camp David Talks nearly foundered at the last minute over the Jerusalem question. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the United States, which signed the Agreements simply as a witness and not as a party, found it necessary and proper to publicly define its position on the issue of Jerusalem. On no other issue did the American government feel compelled to put forth an official independent viewpoint in the final documents.

The Reagan Middle East Initiative

On the evening of September 1, 1982 President Reagan made a major public speech, now known as the Reagan Middle East peace plan.' A vaguely worded document, the Reagan plan was designed to attract broad support from all concerned, and thus, like many of its predecessors, it lacks a solid base of substantive principles. It is grounded in the Camp David formula, and its success or failure hinges on the nature and extent of Jordanian participation in autonomy talks with Egypt and Israel which, in turn, is dependent upon a green light from the PLO. While the Likud government has categorically rejected the plan, the Israeli Labor Party and Peace Now movement support it. Tacit support has already been given by conservative Arab governments. The salient features of the Reagan plan are:

Will Competition Plans Change Insurer-Provider Relationships?

I N JANUARY 1983, THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION SENT to Congress a package of health care financing reforms. These proposals included a limit on the amount of tax-free employer contributions to health insurance and a Medicare voucher system. Underlying the Reagan plan was a market-oriented philosophy for financing health care services and controlling health care costs that has been called the competitive approach. The historical antecedents to this strategy can be found in the writings of Alain Enthoven and Walter McClure, and in prior congressional initiatives such as the Gephardt-Stockman bill (H.R. 7527). A common theme of these

Reagan's Plan for MX Attracts Fire

Reagan's Plan for MX Attracts Fire

What do weapons secure?

The iron triangle of the Defense Department, Congressional hawks, and the defense industry will fight any efforts to reduce President Reagan's plan to rearm America and will dominate any debate over national security and weapons procurement as they have done since 1945. American attitudes are changing, however, and pressing for a re-evaluation of this closed policy apparatus. The first step to be taken is a re-examination of global and national realities to see if current policy is appropriate. Reagan has reversed the trend toward arms control to more strategic arms competition which, by creating waste and distrust, will reduce security. It also narrows policy considerations to East-West rivalry and ignores the North-South changes that are taking place. US failures in Vietnam and Watergate and a negative response to US involvement in Central America are signs that the public is increasingly skeptical of the iron triangle. (DCK)

Reagan's Plan for Nuclear Power

Reagan's Plan for Nuclear Power

Reagan finalizes budget cuts

As expected, President Reagan's revisions to the budget request made in January by then‐President Carter slash R&D funds; most geophysics programs barely keep pace with inflation under the plan. Reagan had outlined proposed cuts in late February (Eos, March 3, p. 90) and on March 10 filled in the details and chopped an additional $13.8 billion from the total budget. Of the agencies and programs impacting geophysicists, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is probably the hardest hit, with a reduction of 24% from Carter's January proposals.Total budget under the Reagan plan is $695.3 billion, down from Carter's proposed $739.3 billion (Eos, February 10, p. 49). Congressional action could alter the budget, however.

The 1970 Election in California

N ONE of the most lackluster gubernatorial campaigns within memory, incumbent Republican Ronald Reagan, ex-actor and self-styled citizen-politician, defeated Jesse Unruh, former speaker of the state Assembly, and erstwhile prominent member of the Democratic party.' Freed from political jeopardy in this era of personality politics by the gifted management of Spencer-Roberts and Associates, Inc., Reagan indulged the luxury of conducting a straight-party-ticket campaign captioned Team '70. By ignoring his opponent and making his own acknowledged charisma a central issue, he generously proffered his political coat-tails to all other Republican candidates. The Governor and his party were keenly disappointed in the results which Unruh characterized in hyperbolic terms: We cut off his coat-tails clear up to the lapels. Reagan's victory by 501,057 votes was a clear indication of loss of popularity since his 900,000 vote margin over Brown in 1966. Moreover three statewide Republican incumbents bested him at the polls: Controller Houston I Flournoy, Treasurer Ivy Baker Priest, and Lieutenant Governor Edwin Reinecke. The Republicans were unable to purge the thirteen willful state senators who blocked Reagan's plan for tax reform and unexpectedly lost control of both houses of the legislature. A particular blow to the Governor was the defeat of his old friend from movie days, incumbent Republican U.S. Senator, George Murphy, despite herculean efforts to save the seat for President Nixon. This general decline in Republican strength is shown in Table 1.