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When Ronald Reagan came to office in 1981, as the 40th president of the U.S., he adopted a hard stance against the spread of communism. He began a massive military build-up, escalating the arms race with the U.S.S.R. The Cold War worsened during his time in office and denouncing Russia as the “evil empire” did not help matters. However, he was an immensely popular president, and won his re-election by a landslide, losing only one state (out of 50) and Washington D.C.
On March 12th, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was announced as the new leader of the Soviet Union. In marked contrast to his predecessors, he was a charismatic leader, open to new ways of thinking and his primary goal was to revive the stagnant Soviet economy. He was the first Soviet leader born after the Russian Revolution. He initiated a new policy of perestroika (literally meaning ‘restructuring’) and it was a movement for reformation within the party. He also introduced Glasnost, a policy that called for “openness” in government. Glasnost was a word that had been in the Russian language for centuries and it was used to describe a process of governance, conducted in the open. At long last, it appeared that there was a Kremlin leader who could be approached to improve U.S. – Soviet relations.
A Gut Feeling
When Gorbachev came to power, U.S. president Ronald Reagan wanted to meet him. He wrote in his diary that he had a “gut feeling”; if he could just meet face to face with the Soviet leader, he may be able to convince him of the benefit of joining the family of leading nations of the world. In November 1985, the leaders of the two superpowers met in Geneva, Switzerland. Although the meeting produced little in terms of arms reduction, it did allow the presidents and their respective advisors to meet and get to know one another.
In October 1986, as the world watched, Reagan and Gorbachev met face to face again in Reykjavik, Iceland. This time, they came much closer to a strategic reduction of missiles but talks broke down over Reagan’s adamant refusal to abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, an elaborate space-based defense system [Refer Box Item: Star Wars]. Although SDI did not gain much credibility in its own country, the Soviets believed such a system was not only possible but could lead to offensive weapons.
However, by this time, the Soviet economy was in grave peril. The U.S.S.R. simply did not have the funds to continue an expensive (astronomically expensive, I would say) arms race with the U.S. This led to an announcement by President Gorbachev that the Soviet Union would reduce arms if there was a reciprocal reduction by the U.S. In December 1987, Reagan and Gorbachev again sat down, this time in the White House, and reached a historic agreement to decommission hundreds of missiles. The pact also eliminated intermediate range nuclear weapons by both parties.
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A New Kind of Soviet Leader
Star Wars
During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, a futuristic defense system, which was both ground-based as well space-based, that would destroy offensive Soviet missiles in midflight, was put forward. This was called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and it was announced to the world by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983.
The system was designed to protect the U.S. from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. This ambitious initiative was widely criticized and ridiculed by the media, as "Star Wars," after the movie. Many believed this would be quite unachievable, like “shooting a bullet with another bullet”.