This essay will include several subjects including the basis of my political views, the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and President Trump, as well as the Reykjavik Summit with President Regan and the Soviet Union in 1986. Both Presidents attempted to comfort the United States by meeting with the leaders of these other countries to try to diminish the risk/threat of nuclear war/missiles. As both Presidents carried out their meetings with the leaders of North Korea and the Soviet Unions, respectively, I will discuss what they agreed upon, if anything and how it improved, or diminished the relationship with that country.
I would say my initial political/government views came from family and since I am a Christian I tend to make sure my political views line up with what I believe. So, my views were mainly derived from family and religion. Politics and government were things that I never really cared about until the last couple years when I have taken a liking to learning more about politics and government in general. Mainly because I began paying taxes and was able to vote. Just like everyone else that talks about issues with the government and/or politics I feel like I can answer some of the questions for the country and could make things easier than we have now. It sometimes seems like the government as a whole lacks two words that a lot of people lack also, and those words are common sense. Although I am a finance major I am a huge advocate for having no debt and I believe you can run (because there are some) billion-dollar companies debt free. In other words, our debt it out of control and we need to start using our money more wisely, as simple as that sounds, apparently it is a hard concept to grasp. Anyways, I tend to vote a little more conservative, but honestly the older I am getting I generally vote for and support things and people that promote common sense. To me, some of the political ideology is ridiculous and it seems to be more of a big show of people competing against each other than actually doing what is in the best interest of the public. As you may have noticed I am a simple man when it comes to politics and government, I vote for common sense and what I believe will be best for the country as a whole. In the end, even if I may not agree with what is going on in the White House, or in any other government position for that matter, I always have respect the leaders of the city, county, state, and the country. I think that mainly comes from how I was raised, as I was taught to respect all people and leaders, even if you have opinions that may differ. I see no benefit in talking down to someone or just not giving them the respect, they deserve because your opinion is different than theirs. That is why everyone has a brain to think for themselves and is able to form opinions. For the most part I try not to let people tell me how I should think about politics/government and try to decide myself through my own research as well as how my value system lines up with particular ideas.
I will be discussing the “Meeting of the Century” because this is currently the most talked about and debated thing going on in our government currently. The “Meeting of the Century” was a meeting that happened between U.S President Donald J. Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. This meeting was the first time a U.S President personally met with a North Korean leader. Many things were discussed in this meeting including complete denuclearization of Korea and the release of sanctions once the United States is confident there is no longer a nuclear threat to the country. There seems that there was no complete agreement on denuclearization, but the President seems to be confident that this was the first step in trying to mitigate the nuclear threat that North Korea presents to the United States. Another important aspect of this meeting was building a good relationship with the North Korean leader and getting on the same page with the leaders. The leaders tried to move on from the bad blood that the U.S has had with North Korea in the past. That is going to be an important aspect of this whole process if they intend for it to work. There have been long ongoing issues with North Korea pertaining to missiles and nuclear weapons. We have tried on multiple occasions attempted to form contracts with North Korea to try to dismantle their missile/nuclear progression. Since 1994, when North Korea declared that they were going to back out of the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which was made with the intention to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology, we have made other agreements such as the Agreed Framework, in which North Korea gave up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid from the United States. That soon failed in 2003 when North Korea backed out of that agreement as well and opened back up their nuclear weapon and technology facilities. Then came the Six-Party Talks effort in late 2003 which consisted of North/South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and of course the United States. Finally, after almost 2 years of talks and stalemate North Korea once again gave up all nuclear weapon testing and programs and they reentered the NPT. Shortly after that in 2009 North Korea dropped it all again and stated that they would never return to talks with the other five countries and they would go back to nuclear weapons testing and restart nuclear weapon programs. Fast-forward to 2018 and the United States has returned to talks with North Korea and President Trump even met with Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12th. No one really knows what is going to come next, but we can all hope that the nuclear weapon programs will come to an end. But, since North Korea has a bad track record of taking back what they said and reverted to old ways, there is really no way to know for sure. As most Americans, I hope that we are heading in the right direction, and hopefully we started off on the right foot to improve our safety as a country, as well as the relationships we have with other countries including North Korea.
The Reykjavik Summit in 1986 was a very important aspect of the Regan presidency. No one really expected anything to work out when this meeting was organized. The summit was largely intended to get rid of all missiles and to work on human rights. Gorbachev (the Soviet leader) actually acknowledged that human rights was something they needed to take a look at, which is something that no other Soviet leader had ever taken into consideration. The leaders agreed on most things, except for one, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The SDI was a program nicknamed “Star Wars” that was proposed by President Regan back in 1983. The programs intention was to create a strategic defensive system against nuclear attacks from the Soviet Union. The defense system was an anti-ballistic missile system to stop nuclear missile attacks. Gorbachev was all for getting rid of missiles as long as the President stopped the SDI program, which President Regan was not going to do. Finally, Gorbachev decided he would let the President continue the SDI program as long as they kept testing inside the lab, which President Regan shot down. Unfortunately, after a long time of talking, discussion, and disagreements, both men walked away with a better relationship, new ideas, but still no actual agreement. President Regan said that they were so close to getting rid of the nuclear missiles and cancelling out the threat from the Soviet Union, but they could not reach a final agreement at the time. At that time many people agreed that this was one of the most important summit meetings that had happened so far. Fortunately, a short year later on December 8, 1987, the President and Soviet Union agreed on something and signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). This treaty eliminated all intermediate and shorter-range missiles. The treaty required that they destroy the ground-based and cruise missiles with ranges of 500-5,500 kilometers or roughly 310-3417 miles. About 4 years later in 1991, both sides had destroyed and scrapped all the missiles that the treaty outlined as well as the launchers and other equipment associated with that class of missiles. Finally, in 2001 the 10-year inspection time frame ended as the treaty stated it would. Fast-forward to today and that is the only Cold War agreement that is still in place. Today the United States, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia are the only countries that remain in the treaty. But, in recent years Russia has said the U.S has violated the treaty and vise-versa. Back then, the Soviet Union was our largest threat of nuclear missile attacks, but nowadays it is North Korea. With the recent summit involving President Trump and Kim Jong-Un, there are many hopes that something along the same lines happens with the U.S and North Korea as it did back in 1986-87 with the U.S and the Soviet Union, but with better success. These two summits involving the U.S Presidents and leader of other countries, are similar because they both are targeting nuclear weapons, and meeting with each other face to face really seems to help with negotiations. No matter how you stand in politics I think most people would enjoy the safety that comes with knowing at least some of the nuclear missile technology is off the table.
I believe that all of the Presidents of the United States have always tried to increase the safety and well-being of the country. I decided to pick out these two Presidents to discuss because they both were trying to rectify a large issue we are facing in our country today as well as in the past. The issue of nuclear war and nuclear missiles, as well as other small issues, have been a big part of the history between the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as the relationship between North Korea and the United States. President Regan was very involved in the nuclear war talk, he even wanted to start the Strategic Defense Initiative to combat the threat of nuclear missiles. President Trump has also been involved in the nuclear war/missile talk. President Trump even went the extra mile and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in order to see if they could rectify the nuclear missile threat issue. I think the Trump summit and the Reykjavik Summit have a couple things in common. In both instances the Presidents went to meet with the leaders of the other countries. The summit that President Trump was involved in was very similar to the summit President Regan was involved in. Both leaders believed that was a clear nuclear threat against our country and decided that something should be done, and they knew that there would not be a resolution unless they took it upon themselves to meet with the leaders of North Korea and the Soviet Union, respectively. They are similar in the aspect of what the meeting was about, in both summits there was much talk about stopping production of nuclear missiles and diminishing the threat of nuclear warfare. But, both President Trump and Regan had other smaller objectives to look at as well. President Trump also talked about the “war games”, (a game or training exercise that is meant to test or improve military training skills and tactics), that were being held, which was a large cost at the expense of the U.S tax payers. President Trump decided that there would not be any more “war games”. So, there was one thing that actually directly came from the summit. They were also similar in the fact that they both walked away with no definite agreement about the nuclear missile/threat at that time. Fortunately, in the case of President Regan, there was an agreement reached later on in 1987. That agreement was the INF or the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which got rid of all mid-range missiles and had 10 years of mandatory check-ups to ensure they were not working on more once all the old ones were destroyed. There could have been an agreement reached earlier, but President Regan did not want to confine testing of his SDI or the Strategic Defense Initiative in the laboratory. When President Regan left that summit, he was quite frustrated that there was no agreement made at that time, because he knew they were so close. There are many hopes that President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un can come to a similar or even better agreement in the coming months, or short future. I think most Americans are concerned about the threat of North Korea firing nuclear missiles, because they continue to carry out test launches, etc. I believe that President Trump sees that and is trying to rectify the issue so that the country is safer and there can be a legacy left as President Regan left, as a President that decided to go after something and accomplish it, rather than promising it and continuing to talk about it, but never do anything to actually further the issue to an end.