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Reagan And The Cold War Essay

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U.S President Reagan’s policies were slightly significant in ending the Cold War. Policies such as the Reagan Doctrine and the proposal of the Strategic Defence Initiative (commonly known as SDI or “Star Wars”) was a large threat towards the Soviet Union further escalated the cold war and moved away from détente although did lead to the withdraw of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan.Reagan also contributed to the end of the Cold War through the peaceful relationship built with Soviet leader Gorbachev. More significant events/reasons that led to the end of the Cold War was the extreme economic strain on both the U.S and Soviet sides caused by excessive military expenditure, the rise and revolt of numerous Eastern European countries under the Soviet Union and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Reagan was the United States President from 1981-1989 and was the president that saw the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Reagan’s approach to the Cold War was to be aggressive towards the Soviet Union. Reagan ordered an extensive buildup of military and implemented the …show more content…

Gorbachev had a Glasnost policy reform in which Perestroika was implemented. Perestroika was a political movement made by Gorbachev to reform and revitalise the Soviet Union from the 1985-1991.The Soviet Union were struggling with loss of power, economically and falling behind in modern technology and ideals, Gorbachev attempted to fix this. Gorbachev pushed for more political freedom within the Soviet Union as well as attempt to restructure the Peoples Congress. Furthermore, Gorbachev abandoned the struggle supporting other communist states as it was adding to the economic distain within the Soviet Union, putting an end to the communist/capitalist struggle. The peaceful and attempted reform of the Soviet Union by Gorbachev to a large extent helped place an end to the cold

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1. Identification and evaluation of sources This investigation, examining certain events of the Cold War, will answer the question: To what extent did President Ronald Reagan’s actions aid in the end of the Cold War? The Cold War was a war between the United States and the Soviet Union that took place from 1947 to 1991. During that time several United States presidents took office, one of the last being Ronald Reagan whose actions have been argued to have been more influential than the rest and impactful toward the downfall of the ongoing war with the Soviet Union.

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Ronald Reagan essentially tore down the soviet empire which basically ended the Cold war. Reaganomics was also a big accomplishment during his presidency. This was an economic plan; it included tax cuts, deregulation, and domestic spending restraint. All of this helped the economic situation which essentially lasted two decades! During this economic plan over 16 million new jobs were created throughout the country.

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Presidential Power Ronald Reagan served as America’s 40th president. Reagan managed to cut taxes, increase defense spending, negotiate a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets and is credited with helping to bring a quicker end to the Cold War. I think that president Reagan used his presidential powers properly in order to achieve what needed to be done. Ronald Reagan was president as the Cold War was raging worse than it had ever before. Reagan used his executive power, Commander in Chief, to put up resistance against Mikhail Gorbachev and push his defensive strategy.

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Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981. While in office, Reagan did so many things to help America. The first things he did were increased troop levels, lowered supply of nuclear weapons in America and Europe, created nearly 16 million new jobs, and collapsed soviet empire. (“Top 10 Reagan Achievements”) By reaching all of those goals, he ended the cold war.

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Although Zbigniew Brzezinski was a critic of Reagan’s SDI program, it was difficult for even him to deny that it worked in helping end the Cold War. The SDI, at least, stabilized a nuclear equilibrium, which was a fact that not even he could deny. Reagan successfully, and mostly peacefully ended the Cold War, which brought joy to people of all walks of life, including New Right conservatives. The beginning of the end of the Cold War was the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, which Reagan said, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!

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Reagan wanted to defeat the soviet union and had ways to do that because of the power he had over them, by military and other countries that were with him that only could make him succeed, military influence became accepted after the Reagan defeat because it was seen to be very successful and it is a good and

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With great courage yet peacefulness, Ronald Reagan stated, “Tear down this wall!” By wall, he meant the Berlin Wall that divided East and East Germany. The Cold War was ending. Reagan achieved many things while in office. We will look at how the Reagan administration influenced the Cold War and when the Cold War ended.

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In 1987 he forged a diplomatic relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev chairman of the Soviet Union. That same year the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a historic agreement to eliminate intermediate range nuclear missiles. Later that year Reagan spoke at the Berlin wall a symbol of communism and challenged Gorbachev to tear down the wall “ Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall”. 2 years later he allowed the people to dismantle the wall. This is considered a symbol of the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of communism.

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people were getting taxed to much, and Soviets were gaining too much control (Brands 209). In his first one hundred days he wanted nothing more than an economic recovery, later to be called the Reagan Revolution. It was a tax cut, reduction in domestic spending, and a balanced budget (Schaller 33). This was called supply side economics, or Reaganomics. He believed this would stimulate product activity which

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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

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The Cold War had two sides, the United States, and the Soviet Union, both of these countries took measures, including giving money, fighting proxy wars, building a wall, or building missiles to fight for their ideals. Before talking about specific events of the Cold War, it must be understood that there were

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Reagan increased the military budget in order to build national defense, yet this worsened the national debt. Many Republicans were strongly anticommunist and did not support the containment policy in regards to the Cold War. Reagan rearmed America in response, leading to an arms race with the Soviet Union. Eventually he made an agreement with the new leader of Russia to rid Europe of nuclear missiles. Moreover, to prevent the spread of communism, Reagan allowed the United States to fund anticommunist movements in the developing world.

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Reagan foreign policies moved away from Détente to bargain from a position of power, this led to the buildup of the military and the technological advances in weaponry. Programs like Strategic Defense Initiative rendered the use of IBCM ineffective (in theory), the advances in battlefield weaponry, M1 Abrahams, and Tomahawk cruise missiles, evened the odds against the larger Soviets forces and in some cases gave the United States the advantage. Many people give Reagan credit for bringing about the collapse of the Iron Curtain, however the Soviet Union’s economic policies restricted growth and led to a huge amount of discord among the population. The advantage that Reagan had was the Soviets were struggling in Afghanistan and in 1986 the Chernobyl incident which spread radioactive particles over the Western portions of Russia and Eastern Europe. The estimated cost of Chernobyl is 18 Billion rubles (1986) over 200 million in today’s dollars, and led to the evacuation of over 300,000 people in what history will determine the worst nonmilitary nuclear event to date.

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One of President Reagan’s legacies was he was able to lower inflation as well as lowering the marginal income tax rate. These initiatives helped America grow as a super power. Known as the President which brought down the Soviet Union, President Reagan met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to solve the conflict between the nations. These meetings helped prevent World

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These included notions of political liberty, economic freedom, pragmatism and American exceptionalism. He was aggressive only in his proactive defence against threats, this realist approach enabled him to maintain an appreciation for power and its limits. Reagan’s foreign policy endorsed a “ringing idealism” (Lowry, 2005), discriminately applied with the specific purpose of eroding and defeating a hostile world empire, the Soviet Union. Reagan pleased the neo-conservatives in his ‘anti-Sovietism’ stance. The applied use of the heavy weight of U.S. power was needed to bankrupt the USSR, through a substantial arms build-up, this belligerent yet pragmatic approach was “prudent and necessary”

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