Gorbachev's Role In The Cold War

From the period of 1945 to 1991 the United States and Soviet Union were embroiled in the Cold War. A war that only involved the build up of arms and no actual fighting between the two sides. Although, proxy wars did take place such as the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The Cold War came to a turning point during the 1980s. At the time the United States was led by Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union was led by Mikhail Gorbachev. Both leaders came into power with foreign policy ideas that radically changed the Cold War. Reagan used the Strategic Defense Initiative and Gorbachev use Glasnost. MIkhail Gorbachev took power in 1985 but previously had strong ties and a high position within the communist party. He was elected the first ever president of
By allowing for openness within Soviet society. Before this policy many paper and video sources of information were censored by the dictatorship. This also allowed for the spread of Western Culture within the Soviet Country. Vladimir Lenin wrote “of all the arts, the most important for us is the cinema”, what Lenin did not realize the impact foreign films would have on the Soviet Union. These foreign films showed Soviet audiences that people in Western society did not have to stand in long lines to purchase food, did not live in communal apartments and had other luxuries such as cars. The Soviet People began to wonder why they could not have a normal life like the people they saw in film. These exchanges allowed the United States and the Soviet Union to build the framework for increased bilateral cooperation. Reagan assumed office in 1980, he came into office during the midst of the Cold War. One of his major goals was to stop the Soviet Union from forcibly spreading communism beyond the territories it already ruled or dominated. To help accomplish this goal Reagan and his advisors came up with the Strategic Defense Initiative known as SDI and dubbed Star Wars by the American press. The SDI was planned to take $4 billion dollars to complete. This plan was advanced for it
In general, Reagan’s communication on both a domestic and foreign scale helped to dwindle the tensions. Although, as a whole the end of the Cold War cannot be credited to only one side. Rather a mixture of the policies from both the Reagan and Gorbachev. From an American standpoint Reagan was responsible through the SDI forcing the Soviets hand in the conflict. The Russians will say that Gorbachev caused the end of the Cold War when the Soviet Union effectively collapsed in 1991. Yet when you take a step back, you see the bigger picture. Two leaders came into power that both strived to reach the same goal. With two leaders mutually making change at the same time, the end of the Cold War was