The election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency of the United States in 1980 signified a change in method rather than aims in American Third World policies. Jimmy Carter's last two years in office, especially, had pointed directly to the key priorities of the new administration – stepping up the pressure against radical regimes and gaining new allies among indigenous anti-Communist movements. But while Carter – a hands-on president if there ever was one – had at first been held back by moral reservations and disagreements among his advisers, Reagan from the outset gladly left both policy implications and policy execution to others. The result was a host of new and sometimes contradictory initiatives, all carried out with the blessing of the president, that sought to target Third World regimes seen as closely allied to the Soviet Union, such as Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Angola. The president wanted to see Soviet defeats and an internal change of political direction in these countries, because such changes would confirm Reagan's own conviction that his country was on the side of history and that socialism was a thing of the past. But even as he strove to overcome the effects of the Vietnam War, Reagan was aware that he had to do so without risking the US losses that conflict had produced. The renewed dedication to interventionism implied finding allies who were willing to do the fighting.