DOCUMENT PROJECT 28

Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War

Ronald Reagan’s election to the presidency in 1980 led to an escalation of tensions with the Soviet Union. Reagan wanted to do more than “contain” communism, the foreign policy approach of every American president since Truman, and pursued aggressive defense spending to challenge the Soviets with both conventional and nuclear arms buildups. One of his programs, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), became particularly controversial. In theory, SDI would have created an antiballistic missile shield over the United States, making it invulnerable to nuclear weapons strikes. Dubbed “Star Wars” for its fanciful theory, which most experts believed to be more fiction than science, the program was also plagued by exorbitant costs and the charge that it violated existing nuclear arms treaties.

While many in the United States applauded Reagan’s tough posture toward the Soviets, he also faced his share of critics. His military spending combined with lower taxes to create a massive federal deficit. 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. By the end of his two terms in office, Reagan had signed treaties with the Soviets to curtail the risk of nuclear war. In decreasing tensions, however, 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.