How Did Reagan End The Cold War?

Before Reagan’s election in 1980, the United States and the Soviet Union experienced détente, or a period of relaxed tension. However, Reagan was harsh on the Soviet Union, adopting a harsh anti-communism policy. By doing so, Reagan was able to help end the Cold War and cause the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Reagan saw the Soviet Union as being “prepared to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat”, and that they were “the focus of evil in the modern world” (Kennedy, 690). In order to fight such an evil, Reagan went onto the offensive, resulting in an enormous increase in military spending. This strategy depended on the Soviet Union not being able to keep up the pace, and due to economic problems from military spending, financing other communist governments, and

Gorbachev was a different leader than the ones before him, due to the Soviet Union’s hope that he would be able to deal with the troubles caused by Reagan’s aggression. He adopted policies such as glasnost and perestroika in order to bring some freedom to the people, and showed a desire for the ending of the Cold War. Gorbachev and Reagan met in four summit meetings. During the second meeting in Reykjavik, Gorbachev agreed to reduce arms, under the condition that Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative not be deployed. Reagan refused this term, saying that “‘There was no way I could tell our people that their government would not protect them against nuclear destruction’” (D’Souza). After this display of uncompromising force, Gorbachev realized that there was no way for him to win. He met with Reagan in another summit meeting in Washington, D.C. to sign the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force Treaty, which called for the elimination of all intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. The outcome of these summit meetings shows that Reagan’s intensiveness paid off in reducing the power of the Soviet Union, therefore helping to end the Cold