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Reagan During The Cold War

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The Cold War began in 1945 after WW II, with two superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union. Each country had their own ideologies about how to rebuild Europe after the war. The fundamental disagreement was over control of postwar Europe. In the east, the Soviets had swept over Poland and most of the Balkans, laying the basis for Soviet domination there. American and British forces had liberated Western Europe from Scandinavia to Italy. The Russians, mindful of past invasions from the west across the plains of Poland were intent on imposing communist governments loyal to Moscow in the Soviet sphere. The United States, on the other hand, upheld the principle of national self-determination, insisting the people in each country should freely elect their postwar rulers. The Soviets saw this demand as subversive since they knew that popularly chosen regimes would be unfriendly to Russia. Suspecting American duplicity, Stalin brought down an Iron Curtain. Winston Churchill …show more content…

He believed that under Carter, American prestige and standing in the world had dropped to an all-time low. Intent on restoring American pride and influence, Reagan devoted himself to strengthening America's defenses and recapturing world supremacy from the Soviet Union. Defense spending doubled and Reagan was on a personal mission to fight communism in the world. Reagan implemented a 1979 decision to place 572 Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe within range of Moscow and other Russian cities to match Soviet deployment of medium-range missiles aimed at NATO countries. He also got funding for the SDI project SDI proposed to construct an elaborate computer-controlled anti-missile defense system capable of destroying enemy missiles in outer space. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were able to come to terms with the INF agreement 1987, this agreement provided for the destruction of all intermediate- range nuclear missiles and permitted on-site inspection

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