Ronald Reagan

            
             During the 1980's many fallacies produced by the Reagan Administration led the American people to believe, at that time, that long term "good- awaited them in the future. Reagan's charismatic fazade and American loyalty helped him to elevate to the level of a martyr in the eyes of the average American. However, his foreign policies proved to be more harmful than beneficial, especially in the Middle East. Reagan's economic reform, again, seemed in line with the needs of the economy, but eventually only hurt US economic reform. Also, unjustified spending on defense only worsened the relationship between the US and the USSR. .
             Ronald Reagan concentrated much of his attention on foreign endeavors that he maintained would sustain "economic and political life of the West- ( Reagan). It may have seemed, at least at that time, the spring of 1983, that sending troops into Lebanon to help gain peace and construct a new democratic government might support this claim. However, on April 28, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a van carrying 2000 pounds of explosives into the US Embassy in Lebanon, where 17 Americans died. This suicide bombing presented a new situation. The US no longer looked like a peacekeeping force, to some Lebanese, but more of an opposition. After two more instances of American deaths, including another suicide bombing killing over 200 people, Reagan ordered the US military to fall back onto ships just offshore. Peacekeeping in Lebanon virtually disappeared after this and represented a defeat in the eyes of the American people. .
             Another example of Reagan-supported foreign affairs is The Iran-Contra Scandal. The Nicaraguan-contras were a reform group that threatened to overthrow the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua in 1983. Reagan supported this group by calling them " the moral equals of our Founding Fathers- (Reagan). Reagan pulled for public support of the contras but found this increasingly difficult for three reasons.