Ronald Reagan
and the End of
the Cold War

Ronald Reagan’s election to the presidency in 1980 led to the escalation of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The president forged ties with religious groups and solidified the party’s base with the New Right. He also increased defense spending against the Soviet Union. At the end of his two terms in office, Reagan had helped engineer the end of the Cold War and signed treaties with the Soviet Union to curtail the risk of nuclear war.

Yet Reagan faced his share of critics. Despite Reagan’s calls for smaller government, heightened Cold War military spending combined with lower taxes created a massive federal deficit. In the short run, Reagan’s use of exaggerated Cold War rhetoric increased anxieties of nuclear confrontation throughout the world. In the long run, however, Reagan was more flexible than his rhetoric implied, and he eventually pursued peaceful coexistence with the Soviets. In so doing, he must share credit with Mikhail Gorbachev, who in seeking to restructure the Soviet Union along the lines of economic and political openness, embraced cooperation with the United States.

The following documents examine the Reagan administration as it sought to fight the Cold War and then bring it to an end. As you examine these sources, consider the various forces that worked to end the Cold War after forty-five years. Did Ronald Reagan and George Bush change their basic assumptions about American power and values?