Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War - Article Example

Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War Introduction Though the beginning and the end of the cold war extended far beyond the presidential rule ofRonald Reagan in the U.S, yet he holds a position of significance in effecting the end of the war, which has been continuing between the U.S and the Soviet Unions for more than four decades. Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the U.S, ascended the chair in 1980. Though, initially he was a member of the democrat party, later he switched over to the republican party, and contended in the presidential campaign of 1980 as a republican candidate. His presidential rule is marked by introduction of several important policies, which contributed in the end of the Cold War, and brought many changes in the economic condition of the nation. Reagonomics, as it is known popularly, were a set of economic standards set by Reagan, to reduce government expenditure, income and marginal tax rates, and to manage capital supply to tackle inflation. During his rule, the contemporary economy of the U.S, which was passing through a severe critical inflationary stage, was much stabilized by the creation of more jobs, supply of more liquid funds into the market, and reducing income tax level. Yet the most significant contribution of Reagan lies his undertaking of attempts to end the long-lasting Cold War. During Reagan’s presidency, the United States of America, technologically advanced than the Soviet Unions. Reagan’s strengthening of the country’s defense system by arranging for medium-range missiles in Europe and his announcement of the building of the missile defense system, created much pressure on the Soviet Unions in matching up with the U.S in its defense strategies. He also defied Soviet powers in conflicts stretching from Nicaragua to Angola to dissuade them from competing with the U.S. Reagan first expressed his desire of abolition of nuclear armaments at the public address in New York in 1982. There he commented about the leaders of the Soviet Union as depriving the common people of their basic rights and privileges in order to continue adding to the list of nuclear weapons. He criticized the Soviet government’ attempt at powering itself with more and more weapons and arms at the cost of public money by cutting the inhabitants short of funds that they might have utilized for their better living. In fact in his famous speech in the British Parliament, Reagan addressed the cause of the cold war, and said “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”. Afterwards, Reagan continued stressing on the need for disarmament for both the nations in order to streamline the way to progress and economic stability of the people of the two nations. in the book ‘Reagans Secret War: The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster’, the authors have commented on this aspect of Reagan by stating, “During his seven remaining years in the White House, Reagan referred again and again—more than 150 times—to the necessity of wiping out nuclear weapons, not just to protect the United States but also to protect every other country in the world. He didn’t just talk to a reporter or two. He talked to the country and the world, to joint sessions of the Congress, to the United Nations, and especially to those in charge of the Soviet Union. He wanted all countries—especially the Soviet Union—to join the United States and reduce their stockpiles of nuclear warheads”1. It becomes apparent through Diggins’s writing that Reagan, while recovering from the serious wound he received from the attempt at his assassination in 1981, he came to realize that the world was getting dangerous and threatening day by day, and that he had to do something to change it for the better. Reagan realized the danger of ‘Mutual Assured Destruction’, which later became the basis of America’s nuclear weapon prevention strategy. Reagan had to tactically deal with the critics of his nuclear prevention goal, and confound them from time to time in order to make Mikhail Gorbachev his partner in nuclear arms reduction. By doing this, Reagan ultimately succeeded in putting an end to the cold war that had been plaguing both the nations for a long time. Reagan has been recorded as saying that when he was in college, he had become a pacifist because he thought the confusion caused by the 1st World War was all framed and not genuine. He had never imagined that his country could really do such a thing as destroying the very existence of two cities by bombing. Andersons have captured his thoughts in their book, “Our class debated whether or not Americans—people who, to our way of thinking, stood for high moral standards—would ever drop bombs from a plane on a city. And the class was about evenly divided. Half felt it might be necessary. The other felt that bombing civilians would always be beyond the pale of decency, totally unacceptable human conduct, no matter how heinous the enemy”2. Reagan, however was on the side of those who did not support bombing by America at any cost. Later, during the 2nd World War, when most of the people in America had started supporting their nation’s bombing of other cities due to the change in both, time and circumstances, Reagan held onto his firm belief against the bombing campaign that his nation had began as a sign of revenge rather than defense. He was deeply moved by the films he had seen of the dead soldiers in the concentration camps of Germany during his servitude in the army for sometime during the 2nd World War. Andersons’ book, allows a glimpse into his feelings and realizations that Reagan penned in the post world war period. It tells that Reagan had been hoping for a sudden change of reformation in the world after the World War was over, much in line with the other soldiers, but soon realized that his concepts and ideas were all wrong. However, instead of giving up hope of a better world, Reagan took upon himself the responsibility of bringing the desired changes. His urge to reform the world was exemplary. Throughout his political career, Reagan had maintained his promise of making the world a better place to live in.3 Though in the beginning, Reagan’s idea of a nuclear free world was not considered seriously by the political environment of the nation, and was thought of next to impossible, yet Reagan stuck onto his policy of relieving the people of the world of the fear of a nuclear war in the future. Since his college days, Reagan had been a severe critic of the wars. Personally, he had never liked the idea of war and killing soldiers of other nations in order to establish supremacy of one nation over the other. The nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 by the U.S, sounded like an alarming bell to him. Consequently, he penned his thoughts, “we are all in the zone of danger: we are in it together…the answers are in us together…unless we work at it together; at a single earth.”4. Since those days till he went onto become the president of the U.S, Reagan continued believing in the harmful and disastrous effects of war, and started working towards freeing the world from the clutches of the nuclear weapons. In 1967, during his tenancy of governorship of California, Reagan was recorded as asserting to the students of Eureka College in Illinois that the total responsibility of shocking the world with the first use of nuclear weapon lay with their nation. Later in 1976, in his speech, addressed to the Republican National Convention, succeeding his loss at the presidential nomination, Reagan once again asserted on America’s, and world’s other powerful nations’ roles in creating a permanent terror to human beings by contributing to the stocking of nuclear weapons and aiming those at one another with the implication of throwing at the slightest pretext. He understood the danger of nuclear war on human society and the fact that it literally can destroy the entire civilization in a moment. Many years later, when Reagan sounded the same, he got very few positive responses. The Soviet Union did not respond at all to his plea of getting rid of the nuclear arms. As a consequence, Reagan was compelled to focus on rearmament, after enlightening himself on the status of the Soviet Union, which was establishing nuclear missiles of very dangerous kind. In response to the National Security Council’s appeal to him to change the defense measures and objectives, since the nation was likely to be under serious threat from the Soviet Union, Reagan expressed his thought of rearmament, as he wanted the Soviet leaders to feel the same threat of nuclear missiles as they had been planning for the U.S. As an instrument of self-defense, Reagan wanted to arm his nation with similar equipment as that of the country, which posed the most dangerous threat to America. Reagan was recorded as saying, “We will do whatever is necessary to meet our objectives. A vigorous defense buildup will also be a great help at arms control talks. The Soviets do not believe that they can keep up with us. If you compare Western Europe to the Soviet Union, you find that our Allies collectively have a greater population and higher GNP. Why should the Russians look ten feet tall and our Allies look like pygmies?”5 Reagan’s tactic of handling the situation bore fruit when, few days later, in 1982, the U.S met with the Soviet Union to hold talks on arms reduction for the first time, which ultimately led to the end of the Cold War. Matlock has given a detailed account of the meetings between Reagan and Gorbachev in his book, ‘Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended’. Jack F. Matlock Jr., was initially the senior coordinator of policies for Soviet Union, but later became the ambassador to Moscow. He, who had the opportunity to witness the historical meeting between his country’s president, and that of the Soviet Union, directed as much credit to the latter as to Reagan for their contribution in ending the Cold War. Reagan himself acknowledged Gorbachev’s immense contribution to the cause, and was quoted as saying in Moscow, “Mr. Gorbachev deserves most of the credit as the leader of this country.”6. Matlock puts up the compromising side of Reagan character in order to show that he was a leader, who could adjust and bend his own attitudes and behavior in order to serve the purpose of the greater mass. Though he had called the Soviet Union as an ‘evil empire’7 during the first term of his office, but it did not affect much because the relation between the two nations had already deteriorated by then. Gorbachev, who ascended to the president’s chair during the second term of Reagan, was different in his approach towards defense system. He wanted to channelize the funds meant for strengthening of the defensive front, to the mending of an unstable economy. At the beginning, both Gorbachev and Reagan, held prejudiced opinion about each other, which in the long run proved to be wrong. From Gorbachev’s revolutionary ideas and policies, gradually Reagan came to realize that Gorbachev was far from being a typical and traditional Soviet leader. He understood that bringing a transformation in his image and policies would help to improve the existing relation between the two nations and help in realizing the dream that Reagan had been seeing since his early political days. Consequently, Reagan started working towards convincing Gorbachev about America’s support to him in his revolutionary ways of conducting the Soviet Union towards material prosperity and well being of the people. It is described in Matlock’s book, which Reagan even rehearsed on his conduct and mannerisms before his first meet in Geneva in 1985, with the Soviet leader. He asked Matlock to act as Gorbachev, and he, being himself, conducted a false meeting between them. Before starting for Geneva, Reagan gave a clear view to his officials, about what their expectation was from the meeting; what to say and what not to say, so that there was no chance for any mistake. Reagan plan was to focus on common interest of the two nations, to support Gorbachevs reformatory acts, but by “avoiding any demand for ‘regime change’”8. From the preparations that Reagan made before the meeting, makes it apparent, how eager he was to resolve the ensuing Cold War between the nations and neutralize the threat of nuclear war that the two countries had been posing towards each other. In the words of Matlock, Reagan “wanted to reduce the threat of war, to convince the Soviet leaders that cooperation could serve the Soviet peoples better than confrontation and to encourage openness and democracy in the Soviet Union.”9. Patrick Diggins, in his book ‘Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History’, points out that Reagan’s mother played an important role in shaping his religious beliefs. He inherited his optimism from his mother who was a staunch believer in the principles of Christianity. Reagan shared his views with that of Thomas Paine, as both of them believed that people of a country should be free from the oppression of the government of that nation. They together upheld the cause of absolute liberty of the citizens above everything else. Diggins emphasized time and again on this aspect of Reagan’s presidency, “Reagan inevitably saw government as the problem”10. Despite being a firm believer in religion, Reagan never professed his religious faith without any purpose. Whenever he had delivered a speech for the public, it had always been directed towards the well being of the people and their liberty. His religion never came in between his ethics and his attempts to good to the people of his country. As the governor of California, Reagan, in 1967, signed a bill, which granted right to women to abort their child. Though he had to face lots of criticism regarding the bill, yet Reagan never tried to intervene laws to make it illegal. Throughout his life, Reagan spoke in favour of the women’s right to abortion. His belief in the principles of Christianity did not stop him from speaking for what he considered right. In the words of Diggins, “Reagan looked to religion less as a source of divine guidance than as a bulwark against the power of the state.”11. Reagan had always been a stern critic of communism. He believed that communism was the worst thing that ever could be imposed on the common people. Paul Kengor’s ‘The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism’, explicitly states that Reagan’s war against communism could be dated back to his days in Hollywood, when he was the head of ‘Screen Actors Guild’ in 1940s. He even produced several television documentaries on anti-communism, and presided over anti-communist meetings. He continued speaking against communism when he stepped into the political field in 1964, at the time of Goldwater presidential campaign. Reagan’s tirade against communism was largely exhibited when, in 1967, he openly appealed to the Soviet leaders to break the Berlin Wall. Kengor states that at the first meeting of Reagan’s National Security Planning Group, in 1981, Reagan agreed with William Casey’s proposal of exploiting the weaker and vulnerable areas of the Soviet Union in order to tackle it. Consequently, defense guidance was issued which called for overturning Soviet expansion. Kengor observes that in 1981, in his speech at Notre Dame University, Reagan stated about communism in the West, “It will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.”12. In England, Reagan again expressed his hatred of communism and talked of a policy, which would make communism, history forever. Kengor notes that in 1982, Reagan and his team had planned an economic conflict against the Soviet Union. There have been different opinions regarding the role of Reagan in bringing about the end of Cold War. Political thinkers and social historians have argued regarding his actual contribution in writing the history of the U.S, and the whole world, differently. James Mann, in his book, ‘The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War’, states that there are two prevailing opinions regarding Reagan’s role in drawing an end to the Cold War. One party thinks that Reagan had won the Cold War against the Soviet nation “through confrontation and pugnacity”5., and the other thinks that he had won out of utter luck. However, Mann, provides a chain of four narratives which unfolds the significant role played by Reagan in the issue of Cold War. In the first narrative he captures the dialogue exchanged between Reagan and Richard M. Nixon before his becoming president. Next, he talks of the communication between Reagan and Suzanne Massie, a small league writer. The third one deals with the long and brutal internal strife within the Reagan’s political circle over his Berlin Wall speech. Finally, the fourth narrative is a detailed discussion of the four Reagan-Gorbachev meetings that took place.13. Conclusion The function of Ronald Reagan cannot be denied through any means or theories inputting an end to the Cold War, and saving the entire human population from the disaster of a nuclear war, that might have had taken place if Reagan had not kept on to his policy of arms reduction and nuclear disarmament. One may sum up in the words of Fred Kaplan, “If Reagan hadnt been president—if Jimmy Carter or Walter Mondale had defeated him or if Reagan had died and George H.W. Bush taken his place—Gorbachev almost certainly would not have received the push or reinforcement that he needed. Those other politicians would have been too traditional, too cautious, to push such radical proposals (zero nukes and SDI) or to take Gorbachevs radicalism at face value.”14 References 1. Anderson, Martin and Anderson, Annelisa. 2009. Reagans Secret War: The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster. New York. Crown Publishing. 2. Matlock, Jack F. 2004. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended . New York: Random House. 3. Diggins, John Patrick. 2007. Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History . New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 4. Kengor, Paul. 2007. The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. New York: Harper Perennial. 5. Mann, James. 2009. The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War . New York: Viking. 6. Kaplan, Fred. 2004. Ron and Mikhail’s Excellent Adventure: How Reagan won the Cold War. Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/id/2102081 Read More