Policies adopted by Raegan and Gorbachev during Cold War

A period of military and political tension that started shortly after the Second World War is known as the Cold War. The conflict was fought between the Western Bloc, which was made up of the United States and the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Eastern Bloc, which was made up of the Soviet Union and its satellite states. (NATO). It started in 1947 following the adoption of the Truman Doctrine, which promised that America would support its allies in cases where they were under threat of the Soviet expansionism (Booth, 98). It ended in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbochev. Both Ronald Reagan and Gorbochev played key roles in bringing to an end the Cold War. However, the policies adopted by each of the leaders differed sharply despite their common goal of ending the War.

Ronald Reagan’s policies during Cold War

The policies adopted by President Ronald Reagan contributed immensely towards bringing the cold war to an end. Long before he became president, Reagan argued against the then policies of containment and détente that had been adopted by early president as having failed. These policies were pursued by Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Containment policy was aimed at preventing the Soviet Union from using forceful means to propagate communism past the territories that they had already dominated (Dudziak, 035). The détente policy was based on reducing the tensions that were as a result of the cold war so as to achieve peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union.

Reagan showed great dislike towards the détente policy which was seen in his 1981 speech. He argued that the policy was operating as a one-way street in favor of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union according to Reagan focused on promoting communism in all parts of the world and they viewed the détente policy as a measure of weakness and vulnerability on the part of the United States. President Reagan wanted to attain peace by demonstrating strength and determination through increased military spending and economic growth. Through economic growth and increased military strength, the United States was going to be in a position in which they will not just contain communism but will also reverse the many gains that Soviet Union had already accumulated thus be able to subdue it. In his view, the Soviet Union was not as strong as it purported to be and he had seen its future collapse provided that the United States adopted competitive approaches not based on war but on economic and military strength. The free-market economy that America had adopted was viewed by Reagan to be very strong and could not be compared to the government-controlled economy of the Soviet Union.

At the beginning of his presidency, Reagan started a large increase in the quantity as well as quality of the United States military empowerment. He initiated technological advancements in the military and weapons. He went to the extent of daring the Soviet Union to match the military capability of the United States knowing that their command economy would soon run out of money and fail to keep pace with the arms race of the free enterprise system of the United States. In an effort to advance the military power of the United States, Ronald Reagan invested in the Strategic Defense Initiative. The program was geared towards the creation of a national defense network of missiles that was aimed at targeting and destroying any form of missile sent by enemies before they were able to reach the United States soil. However, the move drew sharp criticisms from the Democrats and other civil rights movements in the United States who felt that the Reagan administration was spending a lot of taxpayers’ money in advancing the formation of nuclear weapons (Klein, 35). The president denounced such protests and continued with developing more weapons so as to advance the military agenda.

In order to strengthen the military buildup, President Reagan sought another policy namely freedom and democracy that they promoted in the rest of the world. He argued that people in various parts of the world including those in the Soviet Union would choose democracy over totalitarian governance. The policy adopted by President Reagan which was later termed as the Reagan Doctrine and its contents were outlined during his speech in London to the British Parliament under the invitation of Margaret Thatcher who was the then prime minister of Britain. The policy was geared towards spreading freedom and democracy (Dudziak, 04). The strategic defense initiative started by Reagan’s administration acted as an intimidation to the Soviet leadership leading to a negotiation towards the reduction of nuclear weapons. As a result, people in various parts of the world began to show resistance towards communism.

The United States sought to support all the countries that were rising against the Soviet Union such as Poland in which President Reagan offered moral and material support to the solidarity movement. The initiatives played a key role in the rising of more anti-Soviet uprisings. The final results of these initiatives was the collapse of communism in various parts of Europe leading to the introduction of the modern day democracy and freedom in those countries. It further led to the end of the Soviet regime in those regions (Immerman, 105-107). The impact of the policies adopted by Ronald Reagan were not seen in Europe alone but they extended to other parts of the world such as the Middle East in which Afghanistan was able to put off the Soviet military forces that were advancing into the country in 1988.

Roles played by Mikhail Gorbochev

On his part, Mikhail S. Gorbochev decided to take a different approach from his predecessors towards the Cold War when he ascended to power in 1985. He was greatly determined to bring to an end the arms race with the United States as he felt that the move was not suitable for the economic growth of the country. He sought to seek negotiations with the President Ronald Reagan so as to find a common ground for the Cold War period. Despite the fact that Reagan held a very strong anti-communism views, the two leaders were able to engage in many issues so as to prevent the occurrence of war between the two super powers. They were involved in five summits between 1985 and 1988 and they were able to sign an agreement in 1987 known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that focused on reducing the stockpiles of weapons in both countries (Klein, 26-28). Gorbachev was willing to let go of the long-held positions of the Soviet Union and this was viewed as a weakness on his part by many communist leaders in his country and in other parts of the world. By willing to concede little, Ronald Reagan was seen by many as having emerged victorious during the war.

Gorbachev came into power at a time when the Soviet Union was going through a number of economic challenges hence he shifted his focus towards internal reforms as opposed external reforms so as to bring about positive economic changes. He came up with an economic agenda known as the Perestroika that sought to reduce the production quota system thus allowing private ownership of businesses. As opposed to President Ronald Reagan, he sought to channel much of the public funds towards the civilian sector instead military engagements. He further came up with a policy known as glasnost so as to reduce the level of corruption that was being propagated by the top Communist Party members (Dudziak, 114). The move was also aimed towards moderating the abuse of power by the Central Committee. This policy also increased the level of interaction between the citizens of the Soviet Union with the Western countries and thus exposing them to the benefits of democracy and freedom that they were lacking within the communist state.

The moves that were adopted by Gorbachev resulted into a number of negative consequences for the USSR since they failed to revitalize and modernize the nation. Contrary to his expectations, they resulted into the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the falling apart of other communist regimes such as Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic among others. In order to counter the impact of his earlier policies, Gorbachev sought to come up with more conservative policies and in 1990, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He remained fully committed towards maintaining the principles of socialism as well as showing determination towards maintain the Soviet Union as one strong nation. However, his efforts proved ineffective when the Union split into several independent states (Booth, 193). Several hard-liner communists tried to remove him from power through a coup de ta but their efforts failed due to the support given to Gorbachev by Boris Yeltsin who was the then president of the Russian Republic. The Soviet Union later dissolved into fifteen independent states and Gorbachev resigned from presidency in 1991 since the nation he was ruling was no more.

The end of Cold War.

The United States was pleasantly shocked upon realization that the Soviet Union had collapsed and that the Cold War had come to an end. Those who supported the administration of Ronald Reagan were quick to claim victory in the war since they were of the firm belief that the increased military spending advanced by the administration were responsible for the victory. On their part, the Democrats believed that the containment of communism was a result of the bipartisan policy adopted by Harry S. Truman who was a democrat. Despite the divergent views expressed by the top leaders in the United States along party lines, it was evident that the Soviet Union had lost the war.

In the year 1989, the entire world witnessed the coming down of the Berlin Wall which marked the symbol of the Soviet Rule in Eastern Germany. The peaceful coming together of East and West Germany in 1990 marked the End of communism in East and Central Europe and an ultimate defeat of the Soviet Union. This marked the end of Cold War and the steps adopted by Reagan paid off in handing over victory to the United States. Two years after Ronald Reagan left office, the Cold War finally came to an end soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This happened the way Reagan had predicted and the United States together with its allies in Europe prevailed and emerged victorious after the Cold War. The victory was mainly due to the policies adopted by President Reagan that were aimed at the preservation of global peace and promotion of democracy.

Works Cited

Booth, Ken. Statecraft and Security: The Cold War and Beyond. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998. Print.

Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. , 2011. Print.

Immerman, Richard H. The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2013. Print.

Klein, Christina. Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945-1961. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Print.