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Reagan During The Cold War

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The Cold War began in 1945 after WW II, with two superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union. Each country had their own ideologies about how to rebuild Europe after the war. The fundamental disagreement was over control of postwar Europe. In the east, the Soviets had swept over Poland and most of the Balkans, laying the basis for Soviet domination there. American and British forces had liberated Western Europe from Scandinavia to Italy. The Russians, mindful of past invasions from the west across the plains of Poland were intent on imposing communist governments loyal to Moscow in the Soviet sphere. The United States, on the other hand, upheld the principle of national self-determination, insisting the people in each country should freely elect their postwar rulers. The Soviets saw this demand as subversive since they knew that popularly chosen regimes would be unfriendly to Russia. Suspecting American duplicity, Stalin brought down an Iron Curtain. Winston Churchill …show more content…

He believed that under Carter, American prestige and standing in the world had dropped to an all-time low. Intent on restoring American pride and influence, Reagan devoted himself to strengthening America's defenses and recapturing world supremacy from the Soviet Union. Defense spending doubled and Reagan was on a personal mission to fight communism in the world. Reagan implemented a 1979 decision to place 572 Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe within range of Moscow and other Russian cities to match Soviet deployment of medium-range missiles aimed at NATO countries. He also got funding for the SDI project SDI proposed to construct an elaborate computer-controlled anti-missile defense system capable of destroying enemy missiles in outer space. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were able to come to terms with the INF agreement 1987, this agreement provided for the destruction of all intermediate- range nuclear missiles and permitted on-site inspection

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The role that Reagan’s actions played in ending the Cold War has been a controversial topic ever since the war came to a close. This investigation will show that, to a good extent, Reagan’s actions

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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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Eventually Reagan’s speech worked, because in 1987 the USSR agreed to pull out all medium level missiles in Central and Eastern Europe, which ended up causing a collapse of communism as well. Because of this even Ronald Reagan was able to stitch his name in history of one of the most important speeches made all time.

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(weiner3) this quote in the book clearly states that Regan was indeed the one who did most of the work during his presidency to eliminate the threat of the Soviet Union. There is also the famous quote from Margaret Thatcher that says (“Ronald Regan won the war without every firing a shot”) talents. Chapter 1 (wiener 5) also says without Ronald Regan the Soviet Union might have still been around to this very day. Reagan made so many strategic moves to win the war for example, he was smart enough to inform the Russians as to the progression with the Star Wars project, a nuclear missile

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The influences of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the Cold War When Ronald Reagan took over the White House, the end of the Cold War not only along way off, it actually looked like the USSR was winning. Gorbachev and Reagan signed several treaties during Reagan 's second term and granted the production of nuclear arms in both countries. Relations with the Soviet Union improved, but Reagan still attacked Communists throughout the rest of the world. During his presidency, the United States also sent peacekeeping forces to Lebanon and bombed the terrorist-supporting country of Libya.

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The Iron Curtain was the Soviets taking control over eight European countries on the border of the Soviet Union, providing the Soviets with a barrier in case of an attack. The United States responded with the Marshall Plan, giving money to European countries to help with reconstruction and to turn them away from Communism. “Europe must have a great deal of additional help, or face

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In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union, already having threatened Western Europe with their superior military, created nuclear missiles that they plan to use to further terrorize western countries. The USSR’s imperialistic behavior towards weaker countries gives the U.S. and Europe reason to believe they want to use their growing military to expand their western border. Reagan supported the idea for the U.S. to install their own missiles, and even offered an alternative plan to the Soviets called the “Zero Option”. This plan required the USSR to remove all of their nuclear missiles from Europe, and in turn, the United States would not install any of their own (Fuller). On March 8, 1983, President Ronald Reagan gives the “Evil Empire” speech to

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(Document 8). Their job, he said, was to prevent any use of those missiles against any country. He then declared the protection for the Western Hemisphere and called out to Chairman Khrushchev to terminate the “secret and reckless threat to world peace.” (Document 8). Premier Khrushchev responded shortly after with an explanation to why they equipped themselves with weapons.

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foreign policy after World War II. It could be said that, to a greater extend that Ronal Reagans foreign policies and the Soviet Union’s arms race had led to the decline of the Soviet Union. During the 1980 campaign, Reagan stated that the Soviets lacked the economic wherewithal to compete in an all-out arms race with the West . Reagan took advantage of the strength of the U.S compared to the Soviet Union in by starting the arms race. In June 1987, Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall.

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His administration adopted a tough stance towards the Soviet Union and called it the "evil empire," advocating for significant military expansion. The resulting Cold War escalation heightened tensions between these superpowers and laid the groundwork for more confrontational tactics. One critical proposition was Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), commonly known as “Star Wars,” which focused on creating missile defense to shield against nuclear strikes. While SDI remained unfulfilled, its proposal carried extensive ramifications concerning U.S.-Soviet ties. Reagan’s negotiation with Mikhail Gorbachev over Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty helped them eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons while also taking steps toward arms control - another noteworthy occurrence during his tenure.

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When talking about the cold war, it is easy to pick America's side and say that Ronald Reagan won the war. What most people tend to tend to leave out is the history behind the actual collapse of the soviet Union and the slow erosion that had been happening since world war two. Just because he was around when the union collapsed does not mean he was the main reason behind. In fact, Reagan and Gorbachev were known to be on good terms and they communicated all the time. The cold war wasn’t just caused by the Russians vs Americans.

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The Administration of Ronald Reagan is most closely associated with the victory over communism than any other president for a number of reasons. Reagan’s hardline approach as an anti-communist was seen in his election campaign, and spanned throughout his years in office. He blamed Jimmy Carter for the failures to protect developing nations from communism, and worse than anything, the Iranian Hostage Crisis. As the one who publicly demanded the Soviet Premier to tear down the Berlin Wall, he received acclaim from around the world as a crusader for the anti-communism campaign. The release of the prisoners from captivity in Iran, to the operation in Grenada, provided a platform for President Reagan and his administration to become titans in the

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The relationship between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, although initially tenuous, and at times stubborn, was ultimately one of significant interpersonal familiarity and substantial compromise. Yet, in spite of Reagan’s desire to eliminate nuclear weapons, overt rhetoric, and aggressive actions during his administration, Gorbachev’s progressive approach to international relations and domestic initiatives made him most responsible for the conclusion of the Cold War. When Gorbachev became the Soviet general secretary, he inherited significant domestic issues including a declining economic growth rate, bloated military budget, inadequate productivity, and poor living standards (Judge & Langdon, 239). In response to these issues, Gorbachev initiated a policy of glasnost, or openness, in an effort to address key problems instead of ignoring their

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Although former nuclear arms control talks resumed the relationship between Washington and Moscow was tense throughout president Reagan's first term. In President Reagan's speech he spoke labeling the Soviet Union as an evil empire. This caused the Soviet Union to become threatened because President

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The United States and its NATO allies engaged in a Cold War with the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies approximately between 1947 and 1991. While no formal large-scale fighting happened between the United States and the Soviet Union “superpowers”, each jockeyed for greater political advantage. The United States and the Soviet Union were each in possession of nuclear weapons suggesting the possibility of a global nuclear war. In 1962, U.S.S.R First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev began making plans to covertly move nuclear-capable SS-4 and SS-5 surface-to-surface missiles to Cuba.

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