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“Better Unmentioned:” An Assessment Of Reagan Administration Aid To Pakistan, Panama, And Zaire., Charles G. Sherrard

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract.

During the Cold War, the Reagan administration justified American support to the Noriega dictatorship in Panama, the Mobutu dictatorship in what was then called Zaire, and the regime of Zia ul-Haq in Pakistan, by stating that it was necessary to overcome the Soviet Union. While the alliances with these regimes did help to bring about the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, each of these three regimes also acted against US interests via the promotion of drug smuggling or militancy, or forging other alliances with powers potentially hostile to American interests .[1] However, Soviet quagmires in these …