Ronald Reagan Cold War Essay

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“Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Garrit 1) The falling of the Berlin Wall marked the ending of an era, the Cold War. The Cold War lasted from 1947 to 1991; it took 8 presidents to end the Cold War. Ronald Reagan met the challenge head on to bring the Soviet Union to their knees. Ronald Reagan exploited the Soviets economic vulnerabilities. Reagan out spent the USSR in defense to produce as arms race to bankrupt and eventually take Gorbachev out of power. The effect Ronald Reagan had on the Cold War was phenomenal. “The West, he said won’t contain communism, it will only transcend communism. ‘ It will dismiss it,’ he explains, ‘as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written”’ (look 1). According to the article …show more content…

Reagan knew the Soviets couldn’t deploy and maintain such a huge fighting force for long periods of time without digging a deeper hole for themselves. “Reagan in 1989 and 1983 also approved serious of National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) that launch economic warfare campaign against Moscow,” (Sempa 1). The USSR was fighting a two front war one with it economy and one with it military no nation on earth can withstand economic sanctions and militant uprising in communism control territory’s. Reagan knew the quickest way to take out communism once and for all starting with the head of the snake the Soviets. Reagan order “a massive U.S. defense buildup including the SDI program to put more pressure on the Soviets economic resources,” (Sempa 1). Without the Reagan administration the Cold War might have not stayed so cold due to massive nuclear weapon buildup on both sides. In the end Reagan tore the USSR down one dollar at a time to show American