ABSTRACT
The year 1979 witnessed a variety of major challenges to US foreign policy. In the Western Hemisphere, the fall of the Somoza regime in Nicaragua marked the establishment of Latin America's second Communist government. Concurrently, the Iranian revolution changed the balance of power in the Persian Gulf and led to the formation of a regime in Tehran that would be hostile to American interests for the next two decades. Finally, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan would prompt an intensification of the Cold War which, coupled with other Soviet gains in Ethiopia and South Yemen, would pose a significant challenge to the American strategic position in the Middle East and South Asia.
