How Did Reagan End The Cold War?

Although I think that a lot of people think of Reagan when they think of the end of the Cold War and the collapse, to give him the whole credit for the triumph or victory is wrong. From the beginning of his presidency Reagan wanted nothing more than to see the Soviet Union fall or to at least stop growing. He and many others looked toward our military to be ready for in that readiness he said we will find Peace. His administration spent billions of dollars on defense contracts to research and develop new weapons and military technology, we all are too familiar with the Star Wars Program or SDI. In doing so we were left with a very large deficit, but our military and weapons sure were beefed up. With Most of the American fearing the worst, Reagan was worried what that meant for his presidency, that much bad talk can’t be good in the first term of his presidency, so he initiated the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, with the Soviet Union.
No one in their right mind would say yes to that. What really began to end the Cold War was that the USSR got a new leader that was ready for change. Without Gorbechev becoming the leader and him actively seeking both economic and political reform I think the war would have continued on. It was then that possible talks of peace and ending the Cold war began, not in the talks Reagan began. Both sides made concessions and it wasn’t until years after Reagan left office that we saw the fall of the Soviet Union. With that collapse we see the end of the Cold War itself. One could say that in Reagan's aggressiveness and reduction talks he got the ball rolling, and I think he did more than those that came before him, but if the leadership of USSR hadn’t changed I don’t think he would have been making concessions with