The Key Role of Ronald Reagan in Ending the Cold War

Evaluate the role of Reagan in ending the Cold War.

Reagan’s pressure on arms build-up, the Star Wars initiative, and help to Afghanistan might be set against longer-term problems in maintaining defense within the Soviet Union and internal changes brought about by Gorbachev. Arguments that Reagan played a key role in ending the Cold War might focus on the pressure that he put on the Soviet Union from 1981. Reacting against the loss of confidence and relative isolationism of the post-Vietnam era, his strategy of ‘peace through strength’ was more interventionist and aggressive. He increased the armed strength of the US and aided anti-communist opposition groups. He reversed detente and built-up US forces after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. The deployment of Pershing missiles in Germany and the development of the B1 Lancer program and MX missiles forced the Soviet Union into more arms spending. There was a direct challenge to Communism and ideological opposition, which put an onus on the Soviet Union to put more resources into defense.

Reagan was explicit in his hostility to the ‘evil empire’ and made it more difficult for the Soviet Union to control Afghanistan by the use of CIA support to the Mujahedeen and by support for Pakistan. The supposed shooting down of a Korean airliner by the Soviet Union in 1983 was the cause of ending economic agreements which put the Soviets under pressure. In 1983, Reagan’s backing for the SDI initiative put the Soviet Union on the back foot, and it has been argued that by forcing the Russians into maintaining a very heavy arms program at the expense of consumer spending and by forcing them into a defensive mentality, Reagan hastened the need for change and a renewal of détente, which saw the end of the Cold War.

The counter view is that the commitment to high levels of defense spending and pursuing a costly and unsuccessful war in Afghanistan were rooted in the background and previous thinking of the Russian leaders rather than being a reaction to Reagan’s policies and assertive attitudes. It was more, in this view, the fall in oil prices that reduced the Soviet capacity to maintain its existing defense policies. In addition, the arrival of Gorbachev marked a distinct change in internal and foreign policy. However, the reaction to Gorbachev meant that Reagan facilitated the changes that led to the end of the Cold War.

Reagan’s belief in free market capitalism encouraged him to think that once Gorbachev’s internal reforms had become established, then a new relationship would develop, so the policy of confrontation was replaced by greater diplomatic contact. Gorbachev and Reagan held four summit conferences between 1985 and 1988: the first in Geneva, Switzerland; the second in Reykjavik, Iceland; the third in Washington; and the fourth in Moscow. In Washington, Gorbachev and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I, was a major step in de-escalating the arms build-up and conflict.

The major steps taken in 1988–89 heralded the demise of the Cold War when Gorbachev indicated that the Soviet Union would not intervene in the affairs of the satellite states and withdrew from Afghanistan. The Malta Summit of 1989 was seen as the official end of the Cold War. Reagan’s encouragement of change and the personal meetings with Gorbachev were of key importance, but without the context of change within the Soviet Union – the need to escape from the ossification of the Brezhnev years and the changes within the Soviet satellites – this would not have been possible. However, Reagan had established his credibility as a defender of the free world, and his arms build-up gave him the basis for negotiation. He could not be seen as appeasing the Soviet Union, and the pressure established by the US arms development was of crucial importance in persuading Gorbachev that the heavy arms spending could not continue and the whole structure and outlook which was making it necessary had to change.