Further Reading
Doern, G. Bruce, et al.Faith and Fear: The Free Trade
Stor y.Toronto: Stoddart, 1991. Insightful analysis
of the negotiations over the Canada-United States
Free Trade Agreement. Emphasizes the motiva-
tions of the Canadians in pursuing such a pact.
Gough, Barry M.Historical Dictionar y of Canada.
Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1999. Includes a
thorough list of political terminology relevant to
Canada, with brief descriptions.
Granatstein, J. L., ed.Towards a New World.Toronto:
Copp Clark, 1992. This set of essays concentrates
on Canada’s involvement in major international
organizations and peacekeeping missions.
Hampson, Fen Osler, et al., eds.Canada Among Na-
tions, 1999: A Big League Player?Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press, 1999. This collection of
essays examines Canada’s policies in the areas of
economics, cultural affairs, and international se-
curity.
Riendeau, Roger.A Brief Histor y of Canada.New York:
Facts on File, 2000. Lengthy and detailed cover-
age (despite its title) of major issues in Canadian
history. Particularly strong discussion of the fed-
eral government’s relationship with Quebec.
Kevin L. Brennan
See also Business and the economy in Canada;
Canada Act of 1982; Canada and the British Com-
monwealth; Canada and the United States; Canada-
United States Free Trade Agreement; Canadian
Caper; Elections in Canada; Income and wages in
Canada; Mulroney, Brian; Reagan, Ronald; Tru-
deau, Pierre; Unemployment in Canada; Vancouver
Expo ’86.
Foreign policy of the United
States
Definition The interactions of the United States
government and its representatives with other
countries of the world
Culminating a decades-long effort, American leaders in the
1980’s mobilized national power to confront, and roll back
advances made by, the Soviet Union and its allies. By the end
of the 1980’s, the United States began to emerge as the sole
global superpower, with its economic system and democratic
values substantially ascendant.
The darkening horizon of a more menacing world
stunned Americans in the last year of the 1970’s. In
July, 1979, anti-U.S. revolutionaries drove brutal Nic-
araguan dictator and longtime U.S. ally Anastasio
Somoza Debayle from power. In Iran in November,
acting with the encouragement of a new, anti-U.S.
government, radical student extremists seized the
U.S. embassy in Tehran and took its staff hostage. A
month later, Soviet Red Army troops occupied Af-
ghanistan in the first direct military aggression of
the Cold War. The central feature in this pattern was
widely perceived to be a decline in the influence of
the United States. Ineffective responses to each cri-
sis by U.S. president Jimmy Carter compounded a
national sense of malaise.The Reagan Revolution During the 1980 presiden-
tial election, Ronald Reagan effectively mobilized
voters unwilling to accept these reverses abroad and
economic troubles at home; he defeated Carter in a
landslide. Having promised a general military build-
up as part of his campaign, Reagan gained an early
success based solely on his reputation for toughness
with U.S. adversaries. On his inauguration day in
January, 1981, the Iranian revolutionaries released
all American hostages after over 440 days in captivity.
This gesture alone could do little to reduce the grow-
ing anger evident in many Muslims’ relations with
the Western world.
Early in the Reagan administration, firm steps
were taken to channel this Muslim anger to U.S.
advantage by giving enhanced support to the muja-
hideen, or Muslim guerrilla fighters, resisting the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Working in coor-
dination with the intelligence services of Pakistan, a
South Asian and Muslim ally of the United States,
Reagan assigned Director of Central Intelligence
William J. Casey to expand greatly the limited assis-
tance efforts that had begun under President Carter.
Financing, military training, and limited arms ship-
ments began to flow to the Afghani mujahideen.
Confronting Soviet imperialism in Afghanistan
engendered considerable new support for a policy
of aiding anticommunist guerrillas throughout the
world. For a host of separate reasons, China, Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan, and other countries assisted the
project. Within a short time, young men from
throughout the Islamic world began to arrive in
Peshawar, Pakistan, to receive training, arms, and as-
signment to one of several armed groups of AfghaniThe Eighties in America Foreign policy of the United States 387