The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War. While the doctrine lasted less than a decade, it was the centerpiece of United States foreign policy from the early 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Under the Reagan Doctrine, the U.S. provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to "roll back" Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The doctrine was designed to diminish Soviet influence in these regions as part of the administration's overall Cold War strategy.

The Reagan Doctrine followed in the tradition of U.S. presidents developing foreign policy "doctrines," which were designed to reflect the challenges facing international relations of the times, and propose foreign policy solutions to them. The practice began with the Monroe Doctrine of President James Monroe in 1823, and continued with the Roosevelt Corollary, sometimes called the Roosevelt Doctrine, introduced by Theodore Roosevelt in 1904.

Ronald Wilson Reagan ( /ˈrɒnəld ˈwɪlsən ˈreɪɡən/; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. Prior to that, he was the 33rd Governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and a radio, film and television actor.

Born in Tampico, Illinois and raised in Dixon, Reagan was educated at Eureka College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. After his graduation, Reagan moved first to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in to Los Angeles in 1937 where he began a career as an actor, first in films and later television. Some of his most notable films include Knute Rockne, All American, Kings Row, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later as a spokesman for General Electric (GE); his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, his positions began shifting rightward in the late 1950s, and he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and general election in 1980, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.

Lee Edwards (born 1932 in Chicago, Illinois) is a distinguished fellow in conservative thought at the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He is considered one of the foremost historians of the conservative movement in America, and he has published more than 15 books, including biographies of President Ronald Reagan, Senator Barry Goldwater, Attorney General Edwin Meese III and William F. Buckley, Jr. He is currently the Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Edwards was born in Chicago in 1932. At an early age, he was introduced to conservative values and the importance of the written word by his parents; both of Edwards' parents were anti-communist, and his father was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune.

He holds a bachelor's degree in English from Duke University and a doctorate in world politics from Catholic University. He also did graduate work at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Edwards' involvement in the conservative movement began in 1960. He was one of the founding members of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), and later served as the director of information for the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign in 1964. In 1969, the New York Times dubbed Edwards “the voice of the silent majority.” He has acted as a consultant for the Richard Nixon administration, Senators Strom Thurmond and Bob Dole, the Republican National Committee, YAF, the American Conservative Union, the Committee for a Free China and the American Council for World Freedom.