Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Reagan and Thatcher=== {{Further|Reagan Doctrine|Thatcherism}} [[File:President Ronald Reagan with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher During a Working Luncheon at Camp David (retouched).jpg|thumb|President Reagan with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during a working luncheon at [[Camp David]], December 1984]] [[File:Cold War Map 1980.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|The world map of military alliances in 1980]] In January 1977, four years prior to becoming president, [[Ronald Reagan]] bluntly stated, in a conversation with [[Richard V. Allen]], his basic expectation in relation to the Cold War. "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic," he said. "It is this: We win and they lose. What do you think of that?"{{sfn|Allen|2000}} In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 presidential election]], vowing to increase military spending and confront the Soviets everywhere.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=189}} Both Reagan and new British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] denounced the Soviet Union and its ideology. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "[[Evil Empire speech|evil empire]]" and predicted that Communism would be left on the "[[ash heap of history]]," while Thatcher inculpated the Soviets as "bent on world dominance."{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=197}} In 1982, Reagan tried to cut off Moscow's access to hard currency by impeding its proposed gas line to Western Europe. It hurt the Soviet economy, but it also caused ill will among American allies in Europe who counted on that revenue. Reagan retreated on this issue.{{sfn|Esno|2018|pp=281β304}}{{sfn|Graebner|Burns|Siracusa|2008|pp=29β31}} By early 1985, Reagan's anti-communist position had developed into a stance known as the new [[Reagan Doctrine]]βwhich, in addition to containment, formulated an additional right to subvert existing communist governments.{{sfn|Graebner|Burns|Siracusa|2008|p=76}} Besides continuing Carter's policy of supporting the Islamic opponents of the Soviet Union and the Soviet-backed [[People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan|PDPA]] government in Afghanistan, the CIA also sought to weaken the Soviet Union itself by promoting [[Islamism]] in the majority-Muslim [[Soviet Central Asia|Central Asian Soviet Union]].<ref name="Singh">Singh 1995 p. 130</ref>{{citation not found}} Additionally, the CIA encouraged anti-communist Pakistan's ISI to train Muslims from around the world to participate in the [[jihad]] against the Soviet Union.<ref name="Singh" />{{citation not found}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page