Compare And Contrast Reagan And Carter

Nixon, Carter and Reagan in terms of their stance towards the Soviet Union were different.

Richard Nixon was elected as the 37th president of the United States. His presidency lasted from 1969 to 1974. The Nixon administration had took a more realist approach to foreign policy. The Nixon administration viewed that the United States “must think along the line of balance of powers” ( 105). This meant that the United States should try to develop and maintain world order in a world which was bipolar military wise and multipolar political wise. States that acted out of their traditional interest would be punished by other states to demonstrate that violation of the “norms of international conduct” would not be tolerated(106). Stabilizing international

Carter’s idealist approach to foreign policy would be very much different than Nixon’s approach and relationship with the Soviets. During his presidency, Carter wanted to move away from the single emphasizes of the Soviet Union in foreign policy which had offended and confused the Soviets. One focus for the Carter administration in their foreign policy was human rights. During the Nixon administration, human rights were seen more acceptable in domestic politic, but not foreign policy. Carter’s administration had an opposite view as one focus for the Carter administration was the promotion of global human rights. The Carter administration called for “free exercise of human right” in particularly the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union attacked back stating that despite calling for the exercise of human right in the Soviet Union, the United States themselves were guilty of human rights violations such as inadequate health care and unsatisfactory social welfare(118). The Soviet and American relationship had downgraded during Carter’s administration. Although detente with the Soviet Union was not abandoned during Carter’s presidency, Carter focused more on the efforts at strategic arms control and made them central aspects of the United State- Soviet Union relations ( 114). Although in the beginning of his presidency, Carter’s

Two presidents discussed in CHapters 4-6 were Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Each dealt with the Middle East in terms of their own foreign policy. Richard Nixon had a realist approach to his foreign policy. Nixon’s foreign policy wanted the United States to have a more limited roles in dealing with disputes (103). During his presidency, the Yom Kippur War had occured. The Yom Kippur War had occured between Israel, Egypt and Syria. After losing territory to Israel during the third Arab-Israeli war, Egypt and Syria launched forces to coordinate an attack against Israel on Yom Kippur ( History). Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. A U.S airlift of arms had aided Israel during the war. President Nixon had delayed the military aid to Israel for a week as a tactic signal of U.S. sympathy for Egypt ( History). This tactic signal showed Nixon’s realist approaches when dealing with foreign policy as an approach of realism is that “state to state relations shape how one nation responds to another” (102). Nixon’s Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger had used his diplomatic skills to negotiate a series of disengagement pacts among Israel, Egypt and Syria. These agreements were used to settle to conflict in the Middle East, but most importantly helping the United States regain access to oil. This was an example of what Nixon’s meant when he discussed his foreign policy as the United States having limited roles in dealing with disputes. This idea resembles early