Reagan initiates "supply-side" economics with little efficacy; the world-wide economy continues its slide into a recession for the first-half of Reagan's legacy. By 1983, the U.S. unemployment rate is the highest since 1941.
The cold war intensifies and the United States and U.S.S.R. heighten negative projection upon their respective nations. The U.S. boycotts the Moscow Olympiad and early in his first term, Reagan declares the U.S.S.R. to be the "evil empire" and "the focus of evil in the modern world." In a defensive measure, Reagan initiates SDI, or "Star Wars" as a technological deterrent to Russia's possible initiation of nuclear attack.
The communist threat was also perceived by the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere as well. As the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada established a Marxist dictatorship in 1983, the U.S. intervened by means of military operation "Urgent Fury" in order to establish a democratic government.
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