Historians that back up this view that Reagan was the main reason In ending the Cold War, are D.Deudney, G.J. Ikenberry and Rozanne Ridgeway. Rozanne Ridgeway states that “I know of no one else of a leadership stature in the United States in those days who would have moved forward as Reagan did…To take us through what became, of course, a very constructive introductory period to the end of the Cold War.” Richar Perle and Caspar Weinberger however have a slightly different view to Ridgeway’s. In the sense that instead of believing that Reagan helped end the Cold War through his views on anti-nuclearism they believe in the “Reagan victory school” view, whereby him pushing the Soviet economy to the breaking point, through advances in science etc caused the end of the Cold War.
Other historians however argue that it was the economy of the Soviet which was a ticking time bomb, in itself. The economy during the waning days of the Soviet Union was to say the least horrible, there was rampant inflation and the annual growth rate was a lowly 1% a year. Due to many reasons, first and foremost workers were not working hard enough due to the lack of incentives. Due to the communist system everyone was paid roughly the same amount no matter what job you did, street sweepers were being paid roughly the same as doctors. Thus people saw no incentive in working in hard jobs with little hope of promotion, if individuals in much easier jobs were being paid the same amount of money. The communist system within the Soviet Union also ensured the demise of the Soviet economy, due to its self-reliance ideology. Exports and imports accounted for only 4 per cent of the Soviet gross national product. This was not helped by the fact that the Soviets had the Chernobyl incident in 1986 and which cost hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up and were giving away money to third world countries and COMECON countries to support communist governments. It is estimated that in 1985 the Soviet Union gave $6.9 billion to the Third world, excluding Afghanistan as Afghanistan itself cost the Soviet Union up to $8 billion per annum. However without Reagan these weaknesses would not have been exploited. It was Reagan himself which supplied aid to the Mujahideen to combat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, further delaying their stay there and further weakening the Soviet Union’s economy. It was Reagan which started the arms race to bring about all these economy weaknesses which ultimately produced the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
Other Historians however argue that it was perhaps the rise of discontent and nationalism in Eastern Europe which pushed the Soviet Union over the edge, and thus effectively ending the Cold War. The likes of Gaddis argue that the Soviet Union was “a sand pile ready to slide”, and that the disgruntled people effectively seized every opportunity they could to topple it. This was true in Eastern Europe with the likes of Hungary and Romania. Eastern Europe at the time was generally poor, backwards and antiquated compared to their western European counterparts. Gorbachev was partly to blame for this as his declaration that Soviet troops will not interfere with Eastern European affairs, allowed the Eastern Europeans to produce renewed confidence for their independence. The communist system itself was also partly to blame, in the sense that it did not allow the economy to flourish. People were being paid low wages, while inflation made prices soar and queues as long as 2 hours became common thus many Eastern Europeans became disgruntled with their Communist oppressors. Thus Hungary in May 1990 initiated a fairly bloodless coup, and destroyed parts of the Iron curtain. East Germany as well as other countries within the Eastern Bloc then followed suit with Romania having an exceptionally bloody coup, ending with the killing of their dictator Ceausescu and his wife on Christmas day. However Reagan as well is behind this as his repeated attacks on the Soviet economy especially through his defence spending, meant a weaker Soviet economy which in turn then produced disgruntled Eastern Europeans and a resurgence in the nationalist ideology.
Evidently from all of this Gorbachev also had a part to play in the eventual demise of the Soviet Union and thus the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev initiated two very important reforms which were crucial in bringing about the end of the Cold War, they were called glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Perestroika is perhaps the better known of these and involved as the name suggests restructuring the economy of the Soviet Union as we know that at this point it was going downhill very rapidly. Perestroika however did the exact opposite of what it was meant to do, instead of stabilizing the economy it destabilized it. In 1991 the Soviet GDP declined by 17 percent. While between 1990 and 1991, retail prices in the Soviet Union increased 140 percent. Gorbachev also stated that the Red army would not interfere anymore in Eastern Europe due to the costs of maintaining the army there, which then sparked further revolution as people saw the threat of the USSR removed. Thus the Soviet Union could not support itself economically after the likes of perestroika and with further discontent and revolution due to perestroika and the fact that the USSR would not intervene, Gorbachev helped in spelling the end for the Soviet Union albeit unintentionally. However I do not think that Gorbachev played a large part in the demise of the Soviet Union as the economy was already going downhill due to wars, Reagan and the system itself, before he became chairman of the Soviet Union. Thus all Gorbachev effectively did was speed up the demise of the Soviet Union and speeded up. Some historians such as Crockatt argue however that “Decline in economy in late 80s was direct result of Gorbachev’s policies.”
In conclusion I believe that Reagan was primarily responsible for the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War as he was the first person who took advantage of the Soviet’s faltering economy. This ultimately led to discontent among the masses sparking revolution. Gorbachev made the situation worse in the late 80’s and the faltering economy was a result of Reagan as was the revolutions and resurgence of nationalism.
