1981-1989: The Denouement of the Cold War

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.