President Reagan’s Win on the Cold War

This article discusses President Reagan's strategy during the Cold War and how he led America towards ending the war. It explores his anti-communist policies and military expansion in the 1980s.

Running head: REAGAN’S STRATEGY DURING COLD WAR
President Reagan’s Win on the Cold War
Name
Professor
Course
Date

REAGAN’S STRATEGY DURING COLD WAR 1
How President Ronald Reagan Concluded the Cold War
After the WWII (World War II), a cold war developed between the US and the USSR
(union of soviet socialist republic) as well as their allies. This cold war involved using
propaganda, political and economic, fronts with limited use of weapons. The war shaped foreign
policy and domestic affairs in the U.S. It lasted for about forty-five years and it led to massive
loss of lives and properties even though it did not involve military wars1. However, in 1989, the
Berlin wall fell and the East Berlin’s communist party spokesman announced that there were
changes in how US related with western nations and thus citizens had the freedom of crossing
the borders. In this paper therefore, we discuss how the US president during the time Ronald
Reagan outdid the others in cold war through his anti-communist policies and military expansion
in the 1980’s2.
During his reign as president, Ronald Reagan directed American soldiers to attack
Grenada to set the island free from its Marxist dictator and ruler. The liberation was a historic
event as it was an indication of that the Brezhnev doctrine could end and thus ushering in a series
of occurrences that led to the fall of the empire of Soviet. This doctrine was a daunting reality
when Reagan was elected president in 19803. In essence, the doctrine confirmed that countries
that became communists would remain that way. However, that changed after Grenada
liberation.
President Reagan had sophisticated knowledge of communism. He supported the anti-
communist forces in Angola, Afghanistan and Cambodia. He predicted that people would
1 Rowland, Robert C., and John M. Jones. Reagan at Westminster: Foreshadowing the end of the
Cold War. Texas A&M University Press, 2010, p. 57.
2 Mann, Jim. The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War. Penguin,
2009, p. 3-6.
3 Saltoun-Ebin, Jason. The Reagan Files: The Untold Story of Reagan's Top-Secret Efforts to Win
the Cold War. The Reagan Files, 2012, p. 31.

REAGAN’S STRATEGY DURING COLD WAR 2
experience some democracy and freedom if the western alliances remained strong. His critics
however dismissed this as rhetoric questioning how he knew the soviet communism was facing
an impending collapse. To him, the USSR was struggling and he wondered when it was
collapsing not whether it would collapse. He supported anti-communist technique to better deal
with these soviets4. USSR was not in a good situation as Reagan was assuming office. They had
managed to advance rapidly in Africa, South America, and Asia after invading Afghanistan.
However, besides Reagan’s acting to these serious issues, he formulated a counter offensive
technique which was broad.
Reagan began a $1.5 trillion development of his military which was the biggest across the
American history5. The initiative was meant to draw the USSR into a race of armies it was not
anywhere near winning. Reagan had also the determination of leading the alliances from western
side to deploy cruise missiles in Europe. He suggested reduction of nuclear stockpiles by the two
superpowers. Additionally, he also had a policy concerning material and military help to the
resisting movements who were in the struggle of overthrowing tyrannical leaders supported by
the USSR. The doctrine was cost-effective and was one of the politically successful doctrines in
the cold war’s history. However, the doves and the USSR were opposed to Reagan’s
counteroffensive strategies. The USSR however was stunned by the pace made by Reagan and
scale of his military buildup. Actually, since President Reagan became a leaders, no other
territory had been captured by Moscow6.
4 Hoffman, David. The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its
Dangerous Legacy. Anchor, 2009, p. 47.
5 Wilson, James. The triumph of improvisation: Gorbachev's adaptability, Reagan's engagement,
and the end of the Cold War. Cornell University Press, 2014, p. 79.
6 Marlo, Francis H. Planning Reagan's war: conservative strategists and America's Cold War
victory. Potomac Books, Inc., 2012, p. 39.

REAGAN’S STRATEGY DURING COLD WAR 3
The president made an escalation of the war within the USSR. This strategy meant that he was
departing from the détente policy that had been used by the various predecessors such as Jimmy
Carter, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He made his administration implement a new policy that
involved confrontation. He directed it to the Soviet Union using the national security decision
directive or the NSDD-32 which helped in confronting the USSR in three ways7. These ways
included decreasing the access of the soviets to the better technology and having all their
resources diminished, depressing the soviet commodity value in the global market and having the
American defense expenditure increased to have the national position of negotiation
strengthened. It also involved forcing the Soviet Union to have much of its resources devoted
towards defending the nation.
The outcome of this policy of confrontation included the building up of the American military
becoming as massive as ever. His administration had to revive the B-1 program of bombers that
was cancelled during the carter administration. He then initiated the MX peacekeeper missile
production. By responding to the use of missile SS-20, the US president led the development of a
missile (pershing II) by NATO in Germany’s west as a way of gaining a stronger power of
bargaining position that would later see the entire group of nuclear weaponry eliminated8.
Reagan’s perception was that the failure of the soviets of removing their weapons without being
conceded by the Americans, the US needed to introduce their own missiles to gain the higher
position of bargaining
7 Van Dijk, Ruud, William Glenn Gray, Svetlana Savranskaya, Jeremi Suri, and Qiang
Zhai. Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Routledge, 2013, p. 98.
8 Melanson, Richard A. American foreign policy since the Vietnam War: the search for
consensus from Nixon to Clinton. Routledge, 2015, p. 23-67.

REAGAN’S STRATEGY DURING COLD WAR 4
Gorbachev a media celebrity was tasked to deal with economic problems the country was
facing as well as finding ways of coping with reversals of the empires globally. Gorbachev was
admired widely by pundits and intellectuals because of his attempts to achieve hope for western
intellects. He was a tough negotiator and Reagan confronted him and threatened him that he
won’t allow them maintain weapon superiority over them9. Reagan proposed reduced arms or
continued armsrace. On the other hand, Reagan refused Gorbachev’s condition of not deploying
missile defenses. Finally, both the US and USSR agreed to clear away nuclear weapons. Reagan
knew it was the end of the war as Gorbachev went to Washington. Finally, Gorbachev was
ousted from power as he could no longer anything. The people, who had skeptically doubted
Reagan initially, admitted his policies faced thorough vindication. The presidency of Reagan
therefore marked a change towards the end of cold war10.
From the analysis, President Reagan led America towards ending the cold war. His
defense technique initiatives put the soviet military in a state of shock and fear. His doctrine had
achieved its goal before Reagan could leave presidency in 1989. Gorbachev who was the last
soviet leader acknowledged publicly the Marxism-Leninism failures and how futile the Russian
imperial was. Simply put by Margaret Thatcher” President Reagan managed to have the cold war
ended without having to fire any shot”
9 Legvold, Robert. "Managing the new Cold War: what Moscow and Washington can learn from
the last one." Foreign Affairs93, no. 4 (2014): 74-84.
10 Gayte, Marie. "The Vatican and the Reagan Administration: A Cold War Alliance?." The
Catholic Historical Review (2011): 713-736.

REAGAN’S STRATEGY DURING COLD WAR 5
References
Mann, Jim. The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War. Penguin,
2009, p. 3-6.
Saltoun-Ebin, Jason. The Reagan Files: The Untold Story of Reagan's Top-Secret Efforts to Win
the Cold War. The Reagan Files, 2012, p. 31.
Rowland, Robert C., and John M. Jones. Reagan at Westminster: Foreshadowing the end of the
Cold War. Texas A&M University Press, 2010, p. 57.
Hoffman, David. The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its
Dangerous Legacy. Anchor, 2009, p. 47.
Wilson, James. The triumph of improvisation: Gorbachev's adaptability, Reagan's engagement,
and the end of the Cold War. Cornell University Press, 2014, p. 79.
Marlo, Francis H. Planning Reagan's war: conservative strategists and America's Cold War
victory. Potomac Books, Inc., 2012, p. 39.
Van Dijk, Ruud, William Glenn Gray, Svetlana Savranskaya, Jeremi Suri, and Qiang
Zhai. Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Routledge, 2013, p. 98.
Melanson, Richard A. American foreign policy since the Vietnam War: the search for consensus
from Nixon to Clinton. Routledge, 2015, p. 23-67.
Legvold, Robert. "Managing the new Cold War: what Moscow and Washington can learn from
the last one." Foreign Affairs93, no. 4 (2014): 74-84.

REAGAN’S STRATEGY DURING COLD WAR 6
Gayte, Marie. "The Vatican and the Reagan Administration: A Cold War Alliance?." The
Catholic Historical Review (2011): 713-736.