The election of President Ronald Reagan brought back a
policy of hard-line anti-communism and U.S. military build-up.
President Ronald Reagan
The Reagan Doctrine committed the United States to a foreign policy that made a
fundamental shift away from the idea of containing the spread of communism to
that of actively working to roll it back. Rollback meant aiding forces around
the world engaged in fighting left-leaning governments. President Reagan also
undertook a massive buildup of the nuclear arsenal, investing in such programs
as the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars.” Struggling with
its own economic crises, the Soviet Union could not keep up in this arms race,
and during President Reagan's second term, the two sides met with increasing
frequency to discuss arms control and limiting hostility. The rise of a new
generation of leadership in the Soviet Union, less attached to its Stalinist
past and more determined to cooperate with the world, led to internal reforms
and the dramatic end of the Cold War with the demolition of the Berlin Wall in
1989.
President Ronald Reagan
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