Existing comment:
"The 1980s will place severe pressures upon the United States... We can expect to be tested in ways calculated... to erode our beliefs in ourselves."
-- Ronald Reagan, 1979
Beyond the Iron Curtain:
The long Cold War against communism was President Reagan's greatest challenge in foreign affairs. But he faced other dangerous international foes.
The Islamic Revolution continued in the 1980s -- Ayatollah Khomeini ruled in Iran after Shah Reza Pahlavi fled the country. In Cuba, Fidel Castro tried to export his communist revolution to nations in Central America and Africa. The Middle East remained a volatile and violent region that has tested every American president since the end of World War II. |