The Arc of Crisis and the Carter Doctrine: Thirty Years Later

Introduction

Many different doctrines have underpinned U.S. foreign policy, and they read as a timeline of important events in U.S. diplomatic history. The Monroe Doctrine, issued by President James Monroe in 1823, asserted U.S. influence over the Americas. The doctrine was a response to continued European designs on colonial territories in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The Monroe Doctrine became relevant again during the Cold War and was invoked in response to attempts to establish communist power in the Western Hemisphere (Offner, 25). The two most important instances were the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union attempted to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, and U.S. interference in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

Doctrine presented by U.S. president Jimmy Carter in his 1980 State of the Union address that returned the United States to its traditional policy of containment of the Soviet Union. President Carter adamantly declared that the United States would employ military force against any nation that attempted to gain control of the Persian Gulf region (Bacon, 43). This declaration, subsequently known as the Carter Doctrine, marked a dramatic shift in Carter's foreign policy. During the first three years of his presidency, Carter had focused on two foreign policy issues. First, he had vigorously promoted human rights around the globe. Second, he had advocated a policy of détente toward the Soviet Union in which the United States engaged its rival superpower and tried to increase diplomatic and economic contacts between the two nations. Carter hoped that his policy of détente would culminate with the signing of the SALT II Treaty (Strong, 67).

Discussion

In 1979, several events disrupted these two policies. The Islamic revolution in Iran and the ascension of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua created two new governments that were overtly hostile to the United States (Dumbrell, 95). The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia destabilized Southeast Asia. But most important, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan under the pretense of supporting that country's crumbling Communist government.

The actual motive for the Soviet invasion was not entirely clear. Foreign policy advisers within the Carter administration speculated that the Soviet Union wished to prevent the spread of the Islamic revolution that had erupted in Iran and threatened to engulf the region. More alarming, the administration feared that the Soviet Union was returning to its earlier policy of expansionism. But an even more ominous possibility arose. Carter's security advisers suggested that the invasion of Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's first move in an attempt to control the Middle East's vast oil resources (Offner, 26).

The Carter Doctrine was issued in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and warned the Soviets against interference in Iran.

The Soviets, in turn, justified their 1979 invasion of Afghanistan with the Brezhnev Doctrine, named after Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Originally issued prior to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, this doctrine stated that the Soviet Union considered the fate of socialism and socialist regimes on ...