Ronald Reagan and The Cold War

Ronald Reagan and The Cold War

​The President who restored the greatness of America!

Multiple Choice

When was Reagan was a child his family was

• Rich

• Middle Class

• Poor

Multiple Choice

Reagan was a lifeguard in high school and college. How many people did he save from drowning

• 27

• 47

• 77

• 137

Multiple Choice

What did Reagan do for a living as an adult

• Professional football player

• Lawyer

• Actor

• Pilot

Reagan's background

• born poor

• lifeguard

• former Hollywood actor

• former Governor of California

• Republican

Ron and Nancy

A true love story

Reagan's belief

• Very Conservative

• Loved America, bled red, white and blue

• Believed our best days were ahead of us

• Promised to restore America's glory

• Made Americans proud to be Americans again.

Multiple Choice

Moments after he was sworn as President in 1981, what country finally released 52 American hostages after 444 days of captivity?

• Iraq

• Iran

• Syria

• North Korea

Multiple Select

Which of the following statements about Reagan are True?

• He was shot by an assassin

• He made Martin Luther King Day a national holiday

• He appointed the first female Supreme Court Justice

• He created the largest tax cut up to that point in US History?

Multiple Choice

Reagan's assassin, John Hinckley, said he shot Reagan because

• he wanted to impress a Hollywood actress

• Reagan hated communism

• He thought Reagan was a secret alien from outer space

Reagan's view on Communism

• He saw the world in black and white

• He called the USSR a "Evil Empire!"

• He promised to "dump communism in the ash heap of history!"

The Reagan Doctrine

• Reagan wanted to "roll back" communism in Third World Countries

• He pledged aid to anti communists in Africa and Latin America.

Multiple Select

Reagan asked Congress to increase defense spending by what percent?

• 10%

• 25%

• 50%

• 75%

Open Ended

During his first term in office, how much $ was spent on the military? (conventional and nuclear weapons)

SDI - The Strategic Defense Initiative

• Reagan wanted to build an anti-missile defense system in outer space

• US satellites would use lasers and missiles to shoot down Soviet nukes

• This would protect the US from any nuclear attack.

Critics nicknamed SDI

Star Wars

Multiple Select

What did the Soviets think of SDI?

• They thought is was a total waste of money

• It scared them to death

• They were confident they could build their own version of SDI

Flight 007

• In 1983, a South Korean Airliner Flight 007 took off from Alaska

• The Airliner carried 269 passengers including 23 children under the age of 12

• 62 Americans were on board

• Due to a computer navigation error, the plane veered slightly off course and entered Soviet air space.

• The Soviet sent MIG Fighter Jets to intercept the plane

• Attempts by Soviet Pilots to contact the plane were not successful

Multiple Select

Soviet officials were convinced the plane was a US Spy plane, but Soviet pilots could see women and children through the windows of the plane. Soviet pilots were told to shoot down the plane?

What happened next?

• the pilots refused to follow orders and the plane escaped.

• The pilots opened fire, destroying the plane

• The pilots opened fire, but missed the plane

Tragedy in the Skies

• The plane was destroyed, there were no survivors

• Reagan called the attack an act of muder. He went on to call it "an act of barbarism born of a society that disregards the value of human life."

Reagan goes on the offensive

• Grenada was a tiny Caribbean island that developed close ties to Fidel Castro.

• In October 1983, 7,000 US troops invaded the tiny island of Grenada.

• Grenada's Army numbered just 600 men.

• US forces fought mostly Cuban soldiers.

• The US military quickly restored democracy to Grenada.

• 18 US soldiers died in the fighting

• This was the first battle fought by US forces since the Vietnam War. It was a success.

Congress ties Reagan's hands

• Fearful of another Vietnam, Congress passed the Boland Amendment

• It forbid the US from giving aid to the Contra Rebels in Central America.

• The Contras were anti-communists trying to overthrow the communist government of Nicaragua.

However, Congress did not know what this man was up to

His name was Charlie Wilson - the man who turned Afghanistan into The Soviet Vietnam

Here is a question for you to ponder? How did a

• Cocaine sniffing, alcoholic Congressman

• A fanatic, anti-communist, Beauty Queen

• A CIA Misfit

• A belly dancer

• And a basket of Kentucky Fried Chicken

• help the Mujahideen (Soldiers of God) defeat the Soviet military in the 1980s?