THE GUNS OF JULY.

REAGAN, Ronald, 1911-2004 -- Political & social views; ANTI-communist movements; INSURGENCY; GUERRILLAS; NATIONAL security

This article examines how the Reagan Doctrine came to be, what it might become, and what its progress tells about the kind of U.S. as a nation is. The notion that the U.S. should sponsor putatively democratic forces striving ton unseat Soviet-supported regimes had been gaining momentum for several years. These votes to aid the world's four leading anti-communist insurgencies, however, gave the so-called Reagan Doctrine a sharp new profile and a powerful new thrust. In his first term, U.S. President Ronald Reagan had worked to restore to the U.S. a perceived strategic superiority. Public concern and the pressures of reelection had guided him back toward a posture of guarded readiness for accommodation with the Soviet Union in nuclear matters. Republicans and conservatives were real or likely converts to the Reagan Doctrine from the time of its inception. The idea of supporting guerillas was, after all, central to the Reagan agenda: a new economic theory, a return to traditional values, the strengthening of national security and a rebirth of national optimism. The idea was put into practical effect during Reagan's first term, was given a fresh mandate by his reelection, and was endowed with a broad conceptual thrust as his second term opened.