The Regan Revolution Through President Obama - Research Paper Example

He also supported anti-Communism policies and strengthened America’s military in response to USSR arms race. The Reagan revolution through President Obama Introduction Another turning points during this period is the 9/11 terrorism attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The terrorism attacks changed the attitudes of US citizens towards air travel. The US enacted the PATRIOT Act that granted counter terrorism agencies the powers to wire trap and apprehend suspected terrorists. The government also enhanced domestic in the significant installations such as airports, roads and ports through creation of homeland security agency.

Another 9/11 turning point was invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan since America considered the two countries as a threat to global peace. The US wanted to topple Saddam Hussein regime and end Taliban menace in Afghanistan. The US also changed its foreign policy on nations that were harboring terrorists (Golway, 2008). The first significant turning point came in March 1983 when Reagan introduced strategic defense initiatives. The defense projects aimed at manufacturing space-based defense systems that would protect the US from attack by ballistic missiles.

This initiative increased the military capability of America and dominance in geo-politics. Some important defense technologies such as space surveillance systems, tracking devices, and anti-missile systems can be traced back to this project. Another significant turning point was the Iran-Contra scandal of 1986 that undermined the international community faith on Reagan administration. Reagan administration was accused of supplying weapons to Iran in exchange of release of hostages that had been held in Lebanon by the terrorists loyal to Iran authorities.

The arms were later sold and proceeds went to contras. The US Congress had banned the sale of weapons to Iran. After, Nicaraguan sued the US at the International Court of Justice. The court held that the US had contravened the international law with Reagan being criticized for ignoring the existence of the political scandal (Golway, 2008). The AIDS epidemic shook the confidence of Americans in the 1980s. The AIDS epidemic was recognized by doctors in early 1980s and captured the attention of the media, special interest groups and the public (Brier, 2009).

The epidemic shook the confidence of Americas since it was first associated with gay men and mostly white Americans. Surprisingly, all the people diagnosed with AIDS were gay and suffered from other complications such Pneumonia. Some of the homosexual men who had been diagnosed with AIDS died within a period of 2 years. By 1981, the epidemic had acquired several names such gay related immune deficiency, gay compromise syndrome and gay cancer (Brier, 2009). In the 1980s, AIDS was associated with discrimination and stigma and gay men stopped going out of their houses.

Initially, people did not know how AIDS was transmitted since scientists had no evidence that the epidemic could be transmitted through contaminated blood transfusion. AIDS started being common among homosexuals, drug abuse addicts, Haitians and Haemophiliacs. Haitians also protested against being labeled as a risk group. With more than 3,000 confirmed cases by the end of 1983, there was growing pressure on the government to develop a national AIDS policy and also develop medication (Brier, 2009).

In 1985, the government granted five pharmaceutical companies the opportunity to