User:Trey Stone/Ronald Reagan sandbox
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[edit] Criticisms
Liberal Democrats and other detractors, though, claimed that Reagan's personal charm distracted the public from his administration's policies -- Democratic congresswoman Patricia Schroeder famously labelled him the "Teflon president." While he denied knowing about the Iran-Contra Affair, archived notes by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger claim that Reagan felt he could survive violating the law or Constitution, but not charges that he had passed up a chance to secure the release of hostages in Lebanon. However, to this day no smoking gun has been revealed showing that Reagan did in fact know about trading arms for hostages. Additional Reagan-era papers were scheduled to be released in 2001, but President George W. Bush issued an executive order withholding them indefinitely.
Reagan was further criticized by liberal Democrats and human rights organizations who viewed his administration as having a double standard with regards to anti-communist governments. Intent on preventing further Marxist insurgent victories in Central America, the administration generally did not criticize the Guatemalan or Salvadoran governments, despite the fact that their militaries often employed indiscriminate and severe counterinsurgency tactics, at times wiping out whole villages suspected of sympathizing with the guerrillas. The administration supported a transition to civilian democracy in the region, claiming success in El Salvador when center-left Christian Democratic Party candidate José Napoleón Duarte was popularly elected in 1984. However, Duarte was unable to completely reign in human rights abuses committed by the military and paramilitaries during the country's civil war.
Similar criticisms were made about the Nicaraguan conflict, where Reagan's Democratic opponents in Congress, including Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, harshly criticized the Contras for human rights abuses against civilians. It became increasingly clear that the intent of the CIA's involvement with the Contras in Nicaragua was not solely to interdict Sandinista arms shipments to guerrillas in El Salvador and Guatemala; because of this, the Boland Amendment was passed.
Reagan also drew fire from anti-apartheid activists, including Bishop Desmond Tutu, for his refusal to support formal sanctions against the white-minority government of South Africa. He advocated "quiet diplomacy" instead, but Congress overrode a presidential veto in 1986 and imposed sanctions. In southern Africa, the administration concerned itself more with Angola, successfully passing funding for UNITA insurgents against the Soviet and Cuban-backed MPLA regime. The South African government also provided support for UNITA.
Despite these criticisms, Reagan was especially popular in Eastern European countries such as Poland, where Communist satellites of the Soviet Union were growing increasingly unpopular and struggling to hold on to power. The administration consistently expressed support for transitions to civilian democracy throughout Latin America, including in Chile, where General Augusto Pinochet was defeated in a 1988 plebiscite.
