“Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Garrit 1) The falling of the Berlin Wall marked the ending of an era, the Cold War. The Cold War lasted from 1947 to 1991; it took 8 presidents to end the Cold War. Ronald Reagan met the challenge head on to bring the Soviet Union to their knees. Ronald Reagan exploited the Soviets economic vulnerabilities. Reagan out spent the USSR in defense to produce as arms race to bankrupt and eventually take Gorbachev out of power. The effect Ronald Reagan had on the Cold War was phenomenal. “The West, he said won’t contain communism, it will only transcend communism. ‘ It will dismiss it,’ he explains, ‘as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written”’ (look 1). According to the article …show more content…
Reagan knew the Soviets couldn’t deploy and maintain such a huge fighting force for long periods of time without digging a deeper hole for themselves. “Reagan in 1989 and 1983 also approved serious of National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) that launch economic warfare campaign against Moscow,” (Sempa 1). The USSR was fighting a two front war one with it economy and one with it military no nation on earth can withstand economic sanctions and militant uprising in communism control territory’s. Reagan knew the quickest way to take out communism once and for all starting with the head of the snake the Soviets. Reagan order “a massive U.S. defense buildup including the SDI program to put more pressure on the Soviets economic resources,” (Sempa 1). Without the Reagan administration the Cold War might have not stayed so cold due to massive nuclear weapon buildup on both sides. In the end Reagan tore the USSR down one dollar at a time to show American
Tear Down This Wall: This book source is a recount of the events of the Cold War, focused on the question of President Reagan’s role in eliminating the conflict between Russia and the United States. It was written by Romesh Ratnesar, the deputy managing editor of Time magazine, and published in 2009. Its purpose was to follow Reagan’s presidency and the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, emphasizing the ability of one person’s words to change the world. It is somewhat valuable due to its
The early 1980s was a strenuous one for America, as it had been involved with the Vietnam War, various presidential scandals, and various conflicts in the middle east. In addition to this, the rising tax rates affected many families and businesses. This led to economic trouble, where for an average American family, going into debt was the only way to maintain their normal lifestyle. It was during this time that Ronald Reagan became president. He was a New Right Conservative, with many conservative policies.
As the 40th president of the United States, Reagan was a huge component of ending The Cold War and was also a great communicator to other countries.
First, he helped engineer an economic recovery that would, with but one brief stutter, continue for nearly two decades. Nothing he did was more important for the long-term health of the economy than helping defeat inflation. Second, Reagan brought the Cold War to a successful conclusion on Western terms. He shared the stage with Mikhail Gorbachev, but in the end Reagan was victorious. Reagan’s third achievement was his most intangible.
Reagan's many successes as president owed much to his actor's instincts and much to the popular pessimism that he inherited and that his sunny temperament helped at least temporarily to dispel. The same factors contributed as well to the many shortcomings of his administration: its tendency to emphasize style over substance, its emphasis on short-term economic and political benefits at the price of long-term costs, and its insouciant refusal to acknowledge deep domestic and international problems that might undermine the hopeful picture of the world Reagan consistently presented. His presidency coincided with, and contributed to, a long period of dramatic economic growth and the beginning of a momentous change in international relations. But
This speech asked current Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Years later, Reagan request would be answered with the destruction of the Berlin Wall. This is considered as the turning point in the Cold War because communism finally left East Germany and Germany was finally reunited as one. Eventually, Reagan second term was up and George H. W. Bush took. With the conservative foundation laid by Reagan, Bush was facing the ending point of the Cold War.
Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was 40th U.S. President, serving two terms from 1981-1989. As president, Reagan cut taxes, increased tax revenues, lowered inflation and unemployment percentages, and built up the U.S. military. He brought the United States out of recession and fixed the mistakes of previous presidents. President Reagan supported and sent supplies to those defending against Communists as part of his “Reagan Doctrine”. Reagan was known for his “Reaganomics”, his policies based on supply-side economics or trickle-down theory.
Gorbachev still remained in power as a president instead of a dictator, and Communism was banned from Russia. In 1991 and 1992 Gorbachev and Bush signed START I and START II, which is meant to prevent another arms race between the two countries. The fist decreased the number of warheads to 10,000 and in the next year 3,000. Finally, after these two treaties the Cold War officially ends. The most important event that ended the Cold war was the fall of the Berlin Wall because the Berlin Wall was the symbol of the Communist World.
So Reagan recognizing the friction between east and west Germany, decided to take a more political approach. He gave his famous “tear down this wall” speech just one hundred yards from the Berlin Wall (www.history.com). It was his call to the Soviet Union president, Mikhail S. Govbachev, to destroy this wall for the unification of East and West Berlin. Near
In 1987 he forged a diplomatic relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev chairman of the Soviet Union. That same year the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a historic agreement to eliminate intermediate range nuclear missiles. Later that year Reagan spoke at the Berlin wall a symbol of communism and challenged Gorbachev to tear down the wall “ Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall”. 2 years later he allowed the people to dismantle the wall. This is considered a symbol of the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of communism.
It is highly believed that the way Reagan dealt with the Cold War ended the syndrome. Reagan was suspicious of the Soviet Union and put a lot of time into stopping the spread of communism through third world countries. He created the Reagan Doctrine to help this idea. The doctrine’s purpose was to, “"stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth”
During his service the economy improved and ended the cold war. This is a such great thing that he did, in ending the cold war. I think that he did improve the economy by everything he was changing and fixing. Reagan’s main importance was for us to win the cold war because he thought all people deserved to be free. I think that he worked really hard to win the cold war, because he cared about everyone.
Roland Reagan came into the office during his first term hoping to use his administration to fight communism and end the Cold War. He finds out it was not easy as he thought. So, in his second term he turned to a different strategy getting to know someone like Gorbachev. The conservatives thought he was making a mistake. Roland Reagan’s success finally proved to the conservatives that his friendship with Gorbachev was not a dupe.
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.
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.