Reagan & Gorbachev

Test yourself

Reagan and Gorbachev

Reagan and Gorbachev began to work together and improved US-Soviet relations.

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan was a hard-line anti-communist. Reagan became the US President on the 20th of January 1981.
The USA funded the Mujahidin against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and invested in Pershing missiles under Reagan. He also commissioned the Star Wars nuclear defense system.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985.
The Soviet Union's economy was struggling. Wages were higher in capitalist countries. Money was being poured down the drain in the war in Afghanistan. Soviet satellite states were staying in the Warsaw Pact and in communism because of the threat of military repression, rather than because they wanted to.

Likeminded leaders - Reagan and Gorbachev

The two leaders first met in 1985 at the Geneva Summit. Margaret Thatcher was good friends with the US leader Ronald Reagan. Any negotiations or improvements in relations would have the support of the British Prime Minister.
They got on well and became friends.
The 1980s was the height of the anti-nuclear protest movement in many countries in Western Europe.

Gorbachev’s Reforms

Gorbachev came to power in 1985. He tried to loosen up the Soviet Union with his policies of 'Perestroika' and 'Glasnost'.

Perestroika

“Perestroika” means ‘restructuring’. It was the term used by Gorbachev to refer to his reforms.
People living in the Soviet Union were unhappy with their low living standards. Money was spent on nuclear weapons and the war in Afghanistan, instead of on the people.
Gorbachev wanted to end the Afghan War.

Glasnost

“Glasnost” means ‘openness’. Gorbachev wanted to allow greater freedom of conscience. This included freedom of speech and other things.

Discussions in Reykjavik with Reagan

At an October 1986 meeting, both leaders agreed to reduce their stockpile of nuclear weapons, however Reagan wanted to keep his 'Star Wars' anti-missile defence system plans alive.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty - 1987

INF = Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces.
INF weapons were nuclear missiles with a range of up to 5,500km.
The Washington INF Treaty of 1987 removed all long-range nuclear INFs.

Reagan and the ‘Second Cold War’

Reagan believed that God had given him a mission to win the Cold War. As detente ended, he waged the 'Second Cold War' to rid the world of communism.

Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) - ‘Star Wars’, 1983

SDI or 'Star Wars' involved using mirrors, laser beams, satellites and other machinery orbiting the Earth in space. The aim was to be able to shoot down Soviet ICBMs from anywhere in the world. This seemed to violate the Outer Space Treaty signed in 1967.

The importance of SDI

The SDI was extremely important because it gave the USA the advantage in the arms race.
The Soviet economy was 80% smaller than the American economy. It could not find the money to invest in a 'Star Wars' rival.

USSR economic decline

In the 1980s, the US economy was 5x wealthier and 5x more productive than the Soviet economy. It seemed that capitalism (with its competition and innovation) was a superior solution for people's living standards relative to communism (with central command where all innovations were ordered by 1 central government).

The Vietnam War

The war in Vietnam had lasted 20 years. It is thought that over 50,000 Americans died in the war. In his early years as president, Reagan continued to fund anti-communist movements in Latin America, in places like Chile.

The shooting down of KALOO7, 1983

On the 1st of September 1983, a Soviet Union military plane accidentally shot down a South Korean plane carrying 269 people. A member of the US House of Representatives, Larry McDonald was on the plane.
The plane shot down was flight KAL007.
This seems similar to Iran's shooting down of a Ukrainian plane in 2020 amid tensions with America and Ukrainian rebels shooting down the Malaysian flight MH17 in 2014 amid tensions with their own government.

Chernobyl

On the 26th of April 1986, a nuclear reactor exploded at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. 54 people died immediately, but nuclear radiation was spread all across Europe. Children in the region around the site were reported to have had a 90% cancer rate (nuclear radiation can cause cancer).

Reagan and Gorbachev

In a 2009 interview, Gorbachev said 'If President Ronald Reagan and I had not succeeded in signing disarmament agreements and normalizing our relations in 1985-88, the later developments would have been unimaginable. But what happened between Reagan and me would also have been unimaginable if earlier we had not begun perestroika in the Soviet Union.'

1Key Topics

1.1Conflict & Cooperation 1918-1939

1.1.1The Treaty of Versailles

1.1.2The Terms of Versailles 1

1.1.3The Terms of Versailles 2

1.1.4Versailles & the League of Nations

1.1.5LoN Successes & Failures

1.1.6LoN Failure - Upper Silesia

1.1.7LoN Failure - Corfu & Washington

1.1.8End of Topic Test - Treaties and Agreements

1.1.9The Great Depression

1.1.10Tension in Europe in the 1930s

1.1.11WWII & Failure of the League of Nations

1.1.12End of Topic Test - Tension in the 1930s

1.1.13Grade 9 - Conflict & Cooperation

1.2The Cold War 1945-c.1989

1.2.1Emerging US-Soviet Rivalry

1.2.2Communism in the 20th Century

1.2.3The Truman Doctrine & Marshall Plan

1.2.4East-West Alliances

1.2.5Berlin Crises

1.2.6The End of the Berlin Wall

1.2.7End of Topic Test - East & West

1.2.8Build-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis

1.2.9The Cuban Missile Crisis

1.2.10Cold War Conflict - Vietnam

1.2.11Cold War Conflict - Afghanistan

1.2.12End of Topic Test - The Cold War 1945-1989

1.2.13Grade 9 - The Cold War

1.3From the End of the Cold War to 9/11

1.3.1Reagan & Gorbachev

1.3.2Consequences of the Soviet War in Afghanistan

1.3.3End of Topic Test - End of the Cold War to 9/11

1.3.4Grade 9 - The End of the Cold War

2Changing Interpretations

2.1Changing Interpretations

2.1.1Appeasement

2.1.2The Responsibility for Cold War Tensions

2.1.3End of Topic Test - Appeasement

2.1.4Grade 9 - Changing Interpretations

Jump to other topics