How Did Ronald Reagan Prevent The Cold War?
The Cold War was a constant looming threat of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States and the Soviet Union held a significant amount of power, enabling each to reach superpower status. Although, the two became rivals through a mutual distrust and constant competition against one another for more power. Uniquely, following World War II, Germany was left defeated and Britain and France were weak and exhausted. After Germany surrendered, the country was split into four zones, those being: American, French, British, and Soviet. In 1949, the French, British, and American zones merged and formed the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Berlin. Whereas, the Soviet East Berlin became the German Democratic Republic
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In 1972, Nixon and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty which prohibited the manufacturing of nuclear missiles by both sides and took a step toward reducing the threat of the Cold War. Despite Nixon’s efforts, the Cold War got more leverage under the new President, Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan believed that the spread of communism threatened the freedom of everyone, everywhere. As a result, he worked to provide financial and military aid to anticommunist countries around the world. This policy was known as the Reagan Doctrine. In November of that year, the Berlin Wall was destroyed two years after President Reagan faced the Soviet premier in a speech at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin saying “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate, tear down this wall”. By 1991, the Soviet Union had fallen apart completely. The Berlin Wall had been constructed overnight and on the night of November 9th, 1989, it fell. Thousands of East Germans traveled to the barrier to demand the gates be opened. They were met on the other side by huge crowds of Western Berliners waiting to greet them. This monumental step forward for Germany started celebrations that lasted for days. More than two million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in the reunification. People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall, while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since
In 1972, Nixon and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty which prohibited the manufacturing of nuclear missiles by both sides and took a step toward reducing the threat of the Cold War. Despite Nixon’s efforts, the Cold War got more leverage under the new President, Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan believed that the spread of communism threatened the freedom of everyone, everywhere. As a result, he worked to provide financial and military aid to anticommunist countries around the world. This policy was known as the Reagan Doctrine. In November of that year, the Berlin Wall was destroyed two years after President Reagan faced the Soviet premier in a speech at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin saying “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate, tear down this wall”. By 1991, the Soviet Union had fallen apart completely. The Berlin Wall had been constructed overnight and on the night of November 9th, 1989, it fell. Thousands of East Germans traveled to the barrier to demand the gates be opened. They were met on the other side by huge crowds of Western Berliners waiting to greet them. This monumental step forward for Germany started celebrations that lasted for days. More than two million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in the reunification. People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall, while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since