Ronald Reagan &

Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev

Became General Secretary in 1985

Soviet economy was stagnant

Fell in foreign currency earnings as a result of downward slide in

oil prices in the 1980s

Perestroika June 1987

Economic reform

Relaxed the production quote system, allowed for private

ownership of business and paved the way for foreign investment

Aimed to redirect countrys resources from costly Cold War

military commitments to more productive areas in the civilian
sector.

Reagan

President of the US from 1981-1989

Escalated the Cold War

Build up of Armed forces

The forward march of freedom and democracy will

leave MarxismLeninism on the ash heap of history.
[June 8, 1982]

"Communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human

history whose last pages even now are being written.
[March 3, 1983]

Reagan Doctrine

Reagan and his administration provided covert aid to

anti-communist resistance movements in Africa, Asia
and Latin America

Soviet Afghan War (1979-1989)

USA special forces trained and equipped resistance movements

in Afghanistan to fight off Soviet occupation

In what has become something of a pattern, these resistance

fighters would later help fight against US occupation in the 2000s
Afghanistan War

End of the Cold War

Reagan acted diplomatically with Gorbachev in order

to encourage the Soviet leader to pursue substantial
arms agreements

Reagan wanted a world free of nuclear weapons

He believed them to be "totally irrational, totally inhumane, good

for nothing but killing, possibly destructive of life on earth and
civilization.

Gorbachev and Reagan held 4 summit conferences

First in Geneva, second in Reykjavik, Washington D.C & Moscow

 "General

Secretary Gorbachev, if you

seek peace, if you seek prosperity for
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,
if you seek liberalization, come here
to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open
this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down
this wall!

Reagan speaking at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987

End of the Cold War

At the Washington D.C. summit, Gorbachev and

Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty (INF) which eliminated an entire class of Nuclear
Weapons

They laid the framework for the Strategic Arms Reduction

Treaty of START I

November 1989, 10 months after Reagan left office &

George HW Bush became president, the Berlin Wall was
opened and the Cold War was unofficially declared
over (December 3 1989)

Soviet Union collapses in 1991