Reacting to the shift in leadership, Reagan shifted his attitude towards the Soviet Union to be one of negotiation. Instead of viewing meetings with Gorbachev as a battle to fight and win, Reagan tried to make sure that they were cooperating towards both their interests. For example, accompanying Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms, Reagan discussed free markets as a solution to the Soviet Union’s economic problems. Reagan and Gorbachev sent over 40 letters to each other and met in five summits, such as the Geneva summit and the Reykjavík summit. They developed a friendship and eventually signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), banning the possession and production of short and medium range ballistic missiles (although the U.S. recently withdrew in 2019).
Reagan’s Cold War policy started out to be a sharp contrast from the détente of previous administrations. He wanted to continue building up the U.S. military in order to stifle the Soviet economy, disliking détente because he thought that the Soviet Union was taking advantage of America. In 1983, Reagan gave his “Evil Empire” speech, asserting that the Cold War was a battle between good and evil.
Reagan implemented policies according to his “Reagan Doctrine,” to provide aid to anti-communist movements to roll back Soviet influence in the world. As we learned in class, the administration supported the Contras in Nicaragua and supported a jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He upped defense initiatives, namely a program called the Strategic Defense Initiative. Aptly nicknamed “Star Wars,” the plan involved shooting down nukes in space.
A large shift in the Cold War occured with the establishment of Mikhail Gorbachev as the leader of the Soviet Union. Seeing economic problems from the Brezhnev era, Gorbachev established policies to remedy corruption, known as glasnost and perestroika.
The most well-known words of Reagan’s presidency (and, frankly, all I knew about Reagan before USHAP) came from a speech at the Berlin wall, where he delivered the line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Although famous now, it had little media coverage directly after the speech, and was even denounced by some Russian media as “war mongering.” However, during Reagan’s visit to the Soviet Union, he retracted his “Evil Empire” speech as one of "another era."
Gorbachev and Reagan’s cooperation led to the huge downturn of the Cold War. Exactly how this downturn occurred, you should read my next blog post to find out.
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