US President Ronald Reagan takes up office as the successor to Jimmy Carter. On 30 January, at a meeting of the National Security Planning Group (NSPG) that Reagan has newly created, a concealed strategic offensive against the Soviet Union is discussed for the first time.
As well as Reagan, the NSPG includes as its members Vice President George Bush, Defence Minister Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, CIA director Bill Casey and National Security Advisor Richard Allen. According to Defence Minister Weinberger, the resolution is taken at this meeting to move Poland to the focus of American interest. A seemingly imminent intervention by Moscow is to be prevented, while at the same time Soviet power in Poland is to be undermined.
This marks a return of American policy to one of containment, supplemented by proactive elements. These include secret CIA actions, psychological operations and military manoeuvres. This meeting of the NSPG and the next one in March 1981 are the birth of what is later called the "Reagan Doctrine": the financing and support of anti-communist rebellions around the world.less
