The Reagan Doctrine Lives

JANUARY 9th, 2024
Even as Congress wrangles over aid packages to Free World allies under assault, recent polling reveals surprisingly good news on the national-defense front: 59 percent of Americans support sending military aid to Ukraine, and 56 percent support sending military aid to Taiwan. Defense News reports that support for arming Ukraine and Taiwan jumps even higher—up to 67 percent for Ukraine and 65 percent for Taiwan—when respondents are asked the question couched in the Reagan Doctrine principle of supporting democratic allies resisting aggression. The same poll indicates that 71 percent of Americans support military aid for Israel.

Add it all up, and the Reagan Doctrine is as vital, relevant and popular today as it was when its architect unveiled it more than four decades ago. Policymakers and organizations of influence should use this as an opportunity to rebuild America’s defenses and reopen the “arsenal of democracy.”

Roots

Before digging into the importance of those polling numbers—and the importance of America supporting democracies under threat and under attack—let’s take a moment to look at the roots of the Reagan Doctrine.

At the very beginning of his presidency—in his 1981 Inaugural Address—President Reagan declared: “To those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment…No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”

In the months that followed, he used the bully pulpit to educate the American people—reminding us that “national security is government's first responsibility,” that “spending for defense is investing in things that are priceless: peace and freedom,” that “we cannot play innocents abroad in a world that's not innocent,” that “without resources, diplomacy cannot succeed,” that “our security-assistance programs help friendly governments defend themselves.”

He explained that “support for freedom fighters is self-defense” and “is tied to our own security.” And he challenged the American people to “stand by our democratic allies…[and] not break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent…to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.”

Translating rhetoric into policy, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 75, which declared that America would “rebuild the credibility of its commitment to resist Soviet encroachment on U.S. interests and those of its allies,” support countries and movements “that are willing to resist Soviet pressures,” and “contain and over time reverse Soviet expansionism.” In various ways—technological assistance, covert support, weapons shipments, support for pro-freedom civil society movements, timely U.S. military deployments and shows of force—this Reagan Doctrine would aid anti-communist forces and democratic movements resisting aggression in Central America, the Caribbean, Poland, Africa and, of course, Soviet-occupied Afghanistan.

Taking his cues from President Reagan, CIA Director William Casey coldly ordered his deputies to “go out and kill me 10,000 Russians until they give up.” Working with indigenous regional forces, the CIA did that and then some. The Red Army would lose 15,000 dead and 35,000 wounded in Afghanistan. “The CIA went so far as to work with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency to help the resistance carry out strikes…into Tajikistan, still a Soviet republic,” as historian Derek Leebaert writes in The Fifty Year Wound.

The Reagan Doctrine’s hard-ball approach whittled down the Soviet Empire. By the end of the Reagan's presidency, the Cold War had been won. Nine months later, the Berlin Wall was gone—two years later, so was the Soviet Union.

Echoes

The Reagan Doctrine was successful not only because it was sound policy, not only because it was tenaciously implemented, not only because it was relentlessly pursued, but because it was rooted in an idea American leaders had espoused for generations: The Reagan Doctrine echoed what President Truman declared at the beginning of the Cold War—“It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”—and what President Washington declared at the very beginning of the American Republic—“A free man contending for liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”

What was true during America’s War for Independence and throughout the Cold War remains true today—from Central Europe to the Middle East to the South China Sea: Helping free people resist aggression and defend their freedom, as President Reagan understood, is a matter of self-defense and is tied to our own security. That brings us back to those polling numbers.

The reason those polls are such welcome (and surprising) news is that other recent polls reveal there are strong headwinds pushing against U.S. engagement in the world and U.S. commitment to democratic partners: Just 20 percent of Americans favor engagement overseas; 41.9 percent literally say they “favor greater isolationism.” Fifty-one percent of Americans say the U.S. should pay less attention to problems overseas and concentrate on problems at home—up from 30 percent in 2002. We see evidence of these headwinds in the most important polls of all: elections. In 2008, 2012 and 2016, Americans elected candidates who advocated and implemented policies of disengagement: President Obama announced, “It is time to focus on nation-building here at home.” President Trump declared, “We have to build our own nation” and “focus on ourselves.” Congressional elections show there are growing blocs in the party of TR, Eisenhower and Reagan—and in the party of FDR, Truman and Kennedy—that want America to retreat from the world.

Echoing President Reagan, President Biden has made efforts to reverse this drift—arguing that America should “defend democracy around the world,” “stand in solidarity with those beyond our shores who seek freedom and dignity,” “champion liberty and democracy,” and “rally the Free World.” By coming to the aid of democratic Ukraine and bolstering democratic Israel, Biden lived up to those words. However, Afghanistan serves as a grim reminder that his policy hasn’t always matched his rhetoric. It pays to recall that Afghanistan held seven free and fair elections in the 20 years before the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in August 2021—a withdrawal hammered out by the Trump administration and carried out by the Biden administration. Again, the pullout was a reflection of the national mood: In mid-2021, 69 percent of Americans supported pulling out of Afghanistan and leaving its frail democracy to fend for itself. But the consequences—from Kabul to the Kremlin to Kiev—proved devastating.

By returning to the time-tested principles of the Reagan Doctrine, we might—might—be able to stave off the unthinkable and ride out this relapse into isolationism. Our next issue will explore why this is such an urgent task—and how the Reagan Doctrine’s aid-to-freedom-fighters approach can be employed yet again to defend the Free World’s frontiers.