HIST 106 1st Edition Lecture 31 Outline of Last Lecture I. The stagnate of 1970sII. The stagnation continuesIII. The Iranian Hostage CrisisIV. The crisis continues V. The Reagan EraVI. The Reagan yearsVII. Reagan Rights and DrugsOutline of Current Lecture I. Reagan abroadII. Trying to avoid foreign entanglementsIII. Reagan’s second termIV. Iran-Contra ScandalCurrent Lecture- Reagan abroado Lebanese Civil war-started in 1975 and goes on until the ‘90s After colonialism, they had come up with a confessional type of government where people from different nationalities would hold a different percentage of the assembly and this system worked until the 1970s- When the Christian president was assassinated, the country broke down into a civil war - The US is really not involved in this until 1982 and the reason that they were now interested was because Israel got involved and the US was concerned that this would turn into a general war in the middle east Multi-national force, Aug. 1983-a force that try to keep the peace in the middle east (not part of the UN) and will be the buffer in this war- Italy, France, and the US o The multi-national force was very successful because people were not hostile towards them at firsto The government of Lebanon had become almost completely Christian dominated and was seen as very bias o As the Lebanese civil war went on, the US trained the army more and moreo The US was not very loved anymore because we were training the army who would train the Christian militia and the Christian militia would persecute the Muslims- US marine barracks bombing, Oct. 23, 1983o A car bomb was driven into the lobby of the US marine corps base in Lebanono Even after the bombing, the forces did not leave Lebanon and there was really no retaliation and the US will withdraw from Lebanon very quietly and the US will no longer be patrolling in Lebanono The French foreign lesion was also bombed on the same day and after this incident, the French were still patrolling in Lebanono Invasion of Grenada, Oct. 25, 1983 Communist sponsored coup- It was a British colony who had achieved independence and had a good relationship with Britain- In 1979, there was a coup that toppled the government and the group that had toppled the government was a communist group- Basically, it was a communist and army partnership that was running the government US mission to distract from Lebanon - The US sees things in Lebanon were not going too well and the US needed a win - A very strong force of US and Jamaican troops invaded Grenada and since theisland is pretty small, the operation is pretty sure- The US did screw up a lot but in the end it was a success as the US said the US citizens in Grenada were being held captive - The other assumption that had been made was that Cuban forces were training the army in Grenada - Trying to avoid foreign entanglementso Weinberger doctrine The U should not commit forces to combat unless the vital national interests of the US or its allies are involved US troops should only be committed wholeheartedly and with the clear intentionof winning; otherwise troops should not be committed US combat troops should be committed only with clearly defined political and military objectives and with the capacity to accomplish those objectives The relationship between the objectives and the size and composition of the forces committed should be continually reassessed and adjusted if necessary US troops should not be committed to battle without a “reasonable assurance” of the support of the US public opinion and Congress The commitment of US troops should be considered as a last resort- This is definitely is a lesson we learned from Vietnam- Reagan’s second termo Election of 1984 Reagan vs. Mondale-Reagan wins by a landslide vote and even won over places that had been traditionally democrato Bombing of Libya, 1986 We had been enemies with Libya as they were big terrorists and they had really been after the western countries In 1986, the Libyans will bomb a night club in Germany and a lot of US soldiers were involved in this In retaliation for them bombing a night club, we will bomb their capital (military bases and Gaddafi’s home) Consequences: further intensifies tensions between US and Lebanon A Pan-American flight from Scotland to the US will be bombed and seen as a response to the bombing of Libyao Immigration reform and control act, 1986 Illegal immigrants- Will make it illegal to employ illegal immigrants and employers have to make sure that the employee has the right to work in the US Amnesty to 3 million immigrants- Reagan grans amnesty to all of the illegal immigrants in the US (basically said that anyone who came here illegally prior to 1986 is fine to stay and will not be persecuted and not deported) Was very popular because it set up patrol to prevent illegal immigration and allowed the people who already set up lives here to stay- Iran-Contra Scandalo Nicaragua-Lebanon-Iran? The Iranians are helping out militias (very heavily involved) in Lebanon Some of the Lebanese had kidnapped non-profit organization volunteers The US’s policy is to not negotiate with terrorists but in this situation, there will be some negotiating with terrorists to get the hostages back The negotiation is that the US will sell the Iranians weapons if they help the US get the Lebanese to release the hostages The Israelis are the middle man in this situation and will send the Iranians the weaponso LtCol. Oliver North Comes up with the plan to take the profits from the weapons sold to Iran and fund the US Contras affair The Israelis will really no longer be a part of the Iranian affair and weapons to Iran were sent directlyo Contra rebels=anti-communist The contras were a rebel group that were fighting against the Sudanista government in Nicaragua The contras were anti-communist but they really loved their atrocities and took pride in their human rights violations Boland amendment-the US is barred from supporting the contra rebels because of their human rights violations- Reagan is a huge anti-communist and will still help out the contras because they are anti-communisto Punishments? This affair was leaked in a Lebanese newspaper and the question that came up was if the president knew about this The president knew but the Reagan administration
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