Reagan and George H.W. Bush Years: 1980–1992

members of a Nicaraguan right-wing counterrevolutionary militia trained and funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under orders from President Reagan

an economic philosophy promoted during Ronald Reagan's presidency that and concentrated on tax cuts, reduced federal spending, and deregulation of business

economic system in which prices are based on competition and are not government-controlled. In a free market economy, government influence on prices is nonexistent or minimal.

Russian word for "openness," a policy that encouraged free and critical discussion of political and social problems in the Soviet Union

free trade of goods, ideas, and services around the world

nuclear-armed missile designed to be launched from a military ground base at a target up to 3,500 miles away

political scandal involving members of Reagan's administration who secretly sold weapons to Iran and used the proceeds to fund counterrevolutionaries in Nicaragua

members of a mainly agricultural people who live in northern Iraq. A Kurdish uprising in 1991 was quashed by Saddam's troops.

conservative with a strong belief in freedom of speech and worship, as well as the right to own property. Libertarians believe the role of government should be limited to protecting the individual rights of the population.

coalition of evangelical Christian conservatives founded in 1979 by televangelist Jerry Falwell. The Moral Majority was a political organization focused on social issues.

military doctrine of nuclear deterrence. If each opponent realizes launching a nuclear strike will lead to its own destruction, neither side is likely to begin an attack.

social and political movement that began in the 1960s and continued for two decades in response to a social and political move to the left

Russian word for "restructuring," Gorbachev's policy to create economic and political reform

brief international conflict in the Middle East. It was set off by Iraq's invasion of its small but oil-rich neighbor Kuwait on August 2, 1990.

economic policies built around the concept that tax cuts combined with reductions to federal spending and deregulation of businesses would stimulate the nation's economy

Iraq's notoriously brutal and ambitious leader. Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 led to the Persian Gulf War.

members of a procommunist Nicaraguan revolutionary force. In 1979 the Sandinistas overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle and established a procommunist regime.

Muslims of the Shia branch of Islam. In the 1990s Iraqi Shiites lived chiefly in the South. A Shiite uprising in 1991 was quashed by Saddam's troops.

in modern American politics, a political philosophy committed to traditional values and social institutions like the Christian church and the nuclear family

space-based defense system that proposed using lasers to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles launched from the Soviet Union. The media gave SDI the nickname "Star Wars."

idea that tax cuts for large businesses result in corporations producing more goods and employing more people. Trickle-down theory reasons economic growth flows from the wealthier sector to the less well-off classes.

noncommunist activist who led Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution in 1989 and became the country's first noncommunist president since 1948

November 1989's nonviolent democratic transition of power in Czechoslovakia. Václav Havel and fellow dissidents peacefully replaced the nation's Soviet regime with a noncommunist government.