Mikhael Gorbachev Dbq Analysis

Immediately after World War II, the world was thrown into a massive ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, which culminated into the Cold War. The Cold War ignited overwhelming, panic-inducing fears across the United States, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected in 1952 and remained president until 1960, was faced with the challenge of quelling the fears of the American people. Americans during the Cold War, particularly during the presidency of Eisenhower, had constant fears of Soviet expansion, the pertinent anticommunist crusade at home, the spread of communism, and the neverending uneasiness of total nuclear annihilation, all fears which the Eisenhower administration would inadequately allay.

During the World War II, the Soviet Union and Western Blocs were allies fighting against their enemies. As time went on, at the end of the World War II, they started to have disagreements and had many differences. The conflict between these two became huge and was known as the Cold War. The Soviet was the most responsible for the Cold War because they tried to expand the Sphere of Influence, won’t compromise with the Westerns, and they had new weapons that they kept as a secret.

The Cold War was a period when the Soviet Union and the United States began negotiations which would eventually see the end of the Cold War. Still, in the early 80’s the Cold War offered little open diplomacy between the Americans and the Soviets. As such, both were content to increase their nuclear stockpiles and augment their armed forces budgets if necessary. Therefore, anti-nuclear movements and demonstrations were a typical feature of the early 1980’s (The Cold War in the 1980's, 2010). The international achievement of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or (INF), was an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union that each would destroy an entire class of weapons as part of this nuclear disarmament treaty (Abbot, 2011).

Ronald Reagan expresses his views by saying, “For the first time in history, the language of ‘arms control’ was replaced by ‘arms reduction’”. President Reagan goes on to declare that the complete elimination of nuclear missiles took conventional wisdom, patience, determination, and commitment. Reagan was thankful for the treaty, and he believed that this treaty would create a working relationship between the Soviets and the United States. He wanted this relationship to take on other urgent issues such as, strategic offensive nuclear weapons, the balance of conventional forces in Europe, the destructive regional conflicts of the world, and the respect for the human and natural rights granted by God to all people. Similarly, General Secretary Gorbachev’s opinion of the treaty was equivalent to Reagan’s. He claimed, “We can be proud of planting this sapling, which may one day grow into a tree of peace.” Gorbachev felt that this treaty was the birth of a relationship between the US and Soviet Union. He thought that they had reached a breakthrough in the Cold War. The General Secretary also states, “...move together toward a nuclear-free world, which holds out for our children and grandchildren and for their children and grandchildren the promise of a fulfilling and

He would argue back and forth with them. Reagan was so determined to end this Cold War that “when Reagan became President he had only one well-defined foreign policy goal: containing the Soviet Union, or the "evil empire" as he once referred to it.” (“Spark Notes”). Reagan's persistence with the Soviets didn't go to waste because “For the first time since the beginning of the Cold War, a Soviet leader approached the United States to seriously discuss a possible peace. This initiative took the Reagan administration completely by surprise, but Reagan quickly responded in kind” (“Spark Notes”). Finally after a long time of negotiating and dealing with the Soviets Reagan got his way, ¨Gorbachev and President Reagan themselves sat together in both Washington and Moscow on a number of occasions to hammer out agreements”. (“Spark Notes”). Reagan negotiating with the Soviets really was what brought the Cold War to an end. If Reagan was not as persistent as he was the Cold War could have lasted a lot longer then it had already

Despite the unsuccessful past during the Cold War years between the United States and the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan and his counterpart the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev during the 1980s should have focused on bright future by reducing the nuclear arms, because having a partnership, friendship and the common goal will move two nations toward success. On 1985, in an effort to improve the international situation, the United States and the Soviet Union have decided to hold a meeting in Switzerland, Geneva. It was a first official meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, to discuss reductions in nuclear weapons and talk about future partnerships. Geneva Summit led on to four further meetings in 1986 Reykjavik, in 1987 in Washington, Moscow in 1988, and the last one in New York Harbour in 1988.

The Cold War, which started sometime in the 1940’s, was a large quarrel between the United States and the Soviet Union. This dispute involved a lot of propaganda and threats of nuclear warfare. Despite all of the trouble though, after over forty years of fighting, the two leaders of these countries (Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev) would finally work out a solution. However, although they did reach an agreement, there were many differences between these two men.

In the minds of many Americans Ronald Reagan is the president that ended the Cold War, but is this view accurate? They claim Reagan's unprecedented military spending forced the Soviets to crumble. However, many critics of the president's outspending theory claim that the Russian economy would have imploded without such spending, and a military buildup of that kind did nothing but delay peace. Although, Reagan's willingness to negotiate was a clear factor in ending the Cold War, his aggressive arms race may have done more to forestall peace than abet it. The ascendance of Mikhail Gorbachev to power, the stagnating economy of Russia, and the personal friendship forged between Gorbachev and Reagan were the clear factors that contributed to

The competition and increasing awareness on democratic rights did force the Soviets to stand back and make some major policy changes in 1980s. The Soviet Premier of the time Gorbachev tried to set some political and social reforms in the soviet society in order to ease the pressure and help Soviets to continue to survive in the international arena. Moreover, the Soviets did not only make shifts in their internal policies but also in their foreign policy understanding as well. For instance withdrawal from Afghanistan, signing of various nuclear deterrence agreements with multi parties including the US are some of the key changes that occurred in the 1980s. However, the reforms of Gorbachev did not prevent the Soviets to stop its collapse and eventually after a series of events in 1991 the Soviet Union formally announced its dissolution[7].

Despite the increase of defense projects and counter-Soviet initiatives, Reagan did desire for negotiation and improve relations between Washington and Kremlin (Rossinow, 224). Soon afterward, during his second term, Reagan held meetings with leader Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom he negotiated a treaty to eliminate a range of nuclear weapons. Between the two men was a forged relationship- as a partnership, as friends. Reagan, surprisingly, even suggested that both powers should do what they can to ensure that such weapons entirely removed from the world (Rossinow, 232)- although the proposal 's implementation did not work, it still did prove interestingly of Reagan 's thinking to establish disarmament, even if it never happened. Nonetheless, ending the war after so many decades of tension was a monumental triumph for the US and American policy.

In order for Reagan to succeed, [Reagan] used patience and negotiation to end the Cold War. During Reagan's presidency four USSR leaders attempted to negotiate with Reagan (“Children’s”). Reagan increased pressure on the arms race and waited until a deal could be settled that did not compromise the American people. After forty years the Iron Curtain fell, and the new deal settled the “superpowers first agreement to reduce nuclear weapons” (“Children’s”). The fall of the USSR was significant because it liberated millions of people living the impoverished lifestyle of communism. While modern-day Russia does not have a perfect government the end of the Cold War significantly made the world closer to ending

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan just to see themselves as the big “Losers” of the war. The defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was a serious blow to the prestige of the Army, to national pride and faith in the soviet political leaders. The scars it left on many of the remaining soldiers created social and political problems. A reform of the military was necessary. In the midst of all these turmoil, “there was also corruption and inefficiency within the states bureaucracy” (p.3 smitha.com) and nothing seemed to get done. The soviet people and some Eastern European countries were fed up of all these ongoing problems the Soviet Union was facing. The soviet people were fed up with the high communist party which stood ground and dominated the entire soviet politics, as this was the only party in the states since Stalin’s regime. The party had become rigid and corrupt which discouraged younger party members who saw little chance of advancement. At this stage corruption was the order of the soviet system of government which buoyed lack of commitment to the government.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 1979, the goal was to help Afghan communist forces set up a communist government. The Soviet Union felt Afghanistan had key resources and a foothold in the Middle East to spread communist ideas. The result would be a war that the Soviet Union wishes it never got involved in and likened to their “Vietnam War”, meaning winning a number of battles but not the war like what happened to the U.S. in Vietnam. The background of the war, outcome of the war, and impact on the United States are key to understanding the Soviet-Afghan War.

The end of the Cold War can be credited to the actions of Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, and George Bush, as well as the breakup of communist satellite nations. Ronald Reagan with his increased spending in the defense sector instigated an arms race with the Soviet Union in an attempt to overwhelm the Soviet Union through military influence. However, the Soviet Union was unable to keep up with the arms race due to a weak and stagnating economy since building new weapons was costly. Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 also introduced two new policies, Glasnost and Perestroika which ended political censorship and restructured the economy respectively. Glasnost allowed for the actions of the Soviet Union’s government to be publicly displayed and further reduced the appeal of communism. George Bush and Gorbachev both signed the START I and START II treaties which further reduced the number of nuclear warheads on both sides. The breakup of satellite states also contributed to the end of the cold war as the Soviet Union stated that they would not provide military help to the various communist governments. This eventually lead to the falling out of Communist parties in several

President Ronald Reagan, the man who is accredited with ended the forty six year cold war was elected on Nov. 4, 1980. Reagan won his election with fifty percent of the popular vote over former President Jimmy Carter who had forty one percent. While Reagan as a president is praised for such successes as strengthening the national defense, stimulating growth in the U.S. economically, and as mentioned before he is considered the President who ended the Cold War. President Reagan had achieved many things by the end of his administration, but just as he had many successes his presidency was plagued with shortcomings and a handful of what could be considered flat out failures. The purpose of this writing is to establish and identify the ‘cons’ or failures of the Reagan administration, and provide a brief description of each different aspect of the administration.