How Ronald Reagan won the cold war

How Ronald Reagan Won the Cold War

Ronald Reagan was the key individual whose political, economic and military initiatives were later responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall and victory of the United States in the Cold War. The policies implemented by the Reagan Administration were released in declassified National Security Decision Directives stating to use “economic, military and political initiatives..[to] convince the Soviet ruling that unless it shared power with the Soviet people it would lose all of it.”1 Even before Reagan became president he had become a spokesperson for General Electric and a television personality where he would speak out against communism and the Soviet Union. In 1950 he joined a group called the “Crusade for Freedom”2 that fought for the end of the Soviet Empire in the east of Europe. He had given many speeches at anti-Communist events and even made documentaries to relay the message. He had always anticipated to bring down the Berlin Wall and consistently continued the fight against communism when he became president. Throughout the Cold War the Reagan Administration developed and believed in a number of policies that led to U.S victory. Reagan’s determination helped him confront the Soviet Union and challenge them in every way possible. The Containment Policy was one that Reagan believed would work against the Soviet Union. This policy was to prevent the spread of communism and was a response to the Soviet Union’s attempt to enlarge communism throughout Europe. Reagan never hesitated to enlighten the world and president of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev, about the evil of communism. Ever since Reagan’s first meeting with Gorbachev in November 1985 he had shrugged off all threats by the Soviets. Reagan took political initiative and used his power to communicate his messages to lead to the destruction of the Soviets. He used Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Marti and made broadcasts that contained coded messages for leaders of resistance movements, distributing Korans that described the Soviet abuse of Muslims. He changed radio stations in Poland by providing a Catholic mass and in Soviet Central Asia the radio programs voiced the incompatibility between Islam and the forced ideology of communism that ended up being good influences on these countries. Reagan was the one to realize Poland was disrupting the Soviet’s influence on in the east of Europe and thought if Poland broke away from their hold then other countries would follow. Reagan had set up in seven years around 1,500 underground newspapers, journals and 2,400 books and pamphlets to be circulated to relay his message. Even at soccer matches there would be anti-Communist messages that would pop up during the breaks. Reagan knew the power and value of human freedom and that is what helped guide his vision and beliefs on politics throughout the world. He knew how to deal with the Soviet Union and always had a large strategic vision. Reagan fought for 40 years against communism and during those years it cost him many things in his life such as his first marriage, the relationship he had with his children, death threats and even three assassination attempts against him but he never stopped. He believed that his purpose in life was to defeat communism. He once challenged Gorbachev in a speech he gave at the Berlin Wall in Germany on June 12th 1987 where he said “Tear down this wall.”3, something that will be remembered as one of the most important moments in the Cold war history and said to be “The four most famous words of Ronald Reagan’s Presidency.”4 Reagan’s passion and political initiatives of spreading the ideology of Western Democracy and stopping the spread of communism was a key concept in putting an end to the Cold War and noother president was as comitted as Ronald Reagan to ending the cold war At the beginning Ronald Reagan realized a planned economy could not go up against a market economy and made a plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union. CIA analysis had estimated the 1980 per capita GDP of the Soviet Union at forty six percent of the United States. Another way of looking at it is the Soviet Union’s economy was around the same size as California’s economy and Reagan knew this. United States had a much larger economy than the Soviet Union having 2.5 trillion dollars to 500 billion dollars. Reagan hired Herb Meyer, someone who had written about the problems of the Soviet economy and in a report he said that their economy was terribly vulnerable. You could say Reagan made the U.S dollar a “weapon” against the Soviet’s Kremlin. The Soviets had always used the Kremlin to have the West help them out ever since their system had been in crisis since 1917. The Soviet Union’s main income came from its wealth in oil and natural gas. Reagan saw that a partnership with Saudi Arabia would work at ending this source of income. He secretly sent the Director of Central Intelligence and managed to get the Saudis to go along in an agreement that tripled oil production and cut prices by fifty percent. This made the U.S economy boom and had a bad effect on the Soviet’s economy. Poland was also a key factor in the Soviet’s economy so Reagan knew that controlling Poland was important in ending communism and Soviet power. Reagan funded Solidarity which was one of the first anti-Communist parties in Poland. He cut trade agreements, made sales harder and restricted credit between Poland and the Soviet Union. By suspending their trading status Poland lost 6 billion dollars a year in sales. This made Poland fall in line with his regime because they knew he would not give in. After that on December 29th 1981 Reagan ordered all U.S firms to put an end to any contracts that involved the Siberian dual pipeline and no new contracts were to be formed. This put an end to a Japanese and Soviet oil and gas contract as well which meant four billion dollars would be cut from Soviet income which they were counting on. The Siberian pipeline was a very important moment in the Cold war and a turning point. The deal cost the Soviets more than 15 billion dollars. Reagan’s breakdown of the Soviet’s economy was a key factor in ending the Cold War. Their economy already being vulnerable could not handle all the losses and fight against America’s economy and it was more than the Soviet system could take. It forced them to give up when the West finally stopped aid for the Soviet Empire and just put a strain on their economy. Before Reagan entered office the U.S defense technology was falling behind the Soviets during the administration of Jimmy Carter. When Reagan became president he began a large re-armament that was based on high-technology and his massive military buildup was the last thing that helped lead to U.S victory. In 1980 the Soviets thought they were far ahead of the United States and they wanted peace groups to campaign for nuclear freeze and disarmament. The Reagan administration decided to make even more weapons in quantity than the Soviets had built up already. The military build up would force the Soviets to do the same on their side and damage their economy even more. A 600 ship Navy, new Army divisions, tanks, planes and missiles were all a part of the defense upgrade. Reagan ordered the Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger to clear out the Carter Defense Department and rebuild the whole military. There were incursions into Soviet airspace and they even sent up B-52’s, a military aircraft, over the North Pole. It made the Soviet Union fear the United States and allowed the CIA to cause damage to the Soviets in Afghanistan and Central America. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization was proposed by Reagan in 1983 and formed in 1984. It was created to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. New anti-tank weapons and anti-submarine weapons were being moved into position for military action. At this point a Soviet defense official stated that the new weapons being brought in meant that the West of Europe could no longer be overrun by the Soviets weapons and the West would fall in line with the United States. The Soviets thought since they had more weapons in quantity that they could win but did not realize what Reagan realized; that military strength is not based on quantity it is based on the superiority of the weapon. Gorbachev kept spending more money on military buildup to try and match the United States and Reagan did not want to let up on anything he was doing. He offered Reagan to make cuts in missiles and a reduction in the Soviet military if Reagan would put an end to the Strategic Defense Organization but Reagan refused so Gorbachev gave up on that aspect of the war. In 1982 the U.S still wanted more restrictions on technology and weapons in the communist countries of Europe and in 1984 an agreement was ratified. Sweden had been selling technical hardware to the Soviets and even though they did not like the approach the United States had taken they knew United States was a stronger country and they needed their technology and market so they stopped all their sales of technology to the Soviet Union and supplied them to Solidarity. The U.S military buildup during the Reagan years was definitely a key factor in the West’s victory during the Cold War because it made the Kremlin keep pace and was a justification for the Soviets that the United States was the more powerful side in this war. Two years after President Ronald Reagan left office, the Cold War ended December of 1991. The Soviet Union had collapsed and could not fight any longer, just like Reagan had planned and predicted. The continuous aggression and efforts of the United States to stop Soviet expansion and the spread of communism through their political, economical and military initiative all helped put an end to the Cold War. However, those tactics could not have been a success without the vision and determination of Ronald Reagan who fought to the end.

1. Norquist,Warren. “How the United States Won The Cold War.” Global Comptetitiveness Volume 9 (1) pp.1-27. 2001.
2. Walker,Michael. “Crusade for Freedom.” Research Repository St. Andrews. May.14.2008.
3. Herskovits,Arielle. “Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” Analyzed.” Blog Constitution Center. Nov.10.2010
4. Ratnesar,Romesh. “20 Years After “Tear Down This Wall.” Time.June.11.2007