…And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

The gradual disintegration of the Soviet Union can be observed in a triptych of carefully orchestrated events at the hands of the United States of America and crucial mistakes made by the USSR. Ronald Reagan’s deliberate in-your-face democratic presidency and relentless criticism of Marxism-Leninism ideology during the 1980’s contributed greatly the fall of the Soviet Union. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s weak and unstable rule over the Soviet Empire was also a large factor in the USSR’s collapse. Gorbachev’s unsuccessful economic reforms and the 1991 August coup d’État that threatened to overthrow him caused inconsistencies in his reign as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The final cause in the triptych of the breakup of the Soviet Union belongs to general unrest among the Soviet civilians. These three causes come together to create a complicated yet intriguing and significant event in world history.

In understanding why the Soviet Union fell, it is important to note that President Ronald Reagan was one of the factors that decided the Soviet Union’s fate. Reagan, the fortieth President of the United States, from 1980 to 1988 has been said to have won the Cold War without firing a shot (Opposing Viewpoints, 28). He continually participated in a dangerous game of one-upmanship with leaders of the Soviet Union; step by step, Reagan proved that the Soviet Union was economically, militaristically, and collectively inferior to the United States. In 1983 Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI. The purpose of this proposal was to initiate space and ground-based protection against nuclear weapons. The SDI replaced the outdated and irrational dogma of Mutual Assured Destruction in which one party would attack the other with nuclear weapons, resulting in the destruction of the attacker as well as the defender. While the USSR and USA were still at a stalemate offensively, the SDI put the United States at a superior defensive position. The Soviet Union did not have the economic potency to match the SDI. This gave the United States an advanced militaristic position, but more importantly, the SDI was another failure at the hands of the USSR (Opposing Viewpoints, 32-36).

President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy (and offensive strategy) with the Soviet Empire was to incessantly “aggravate Soviet vulnerabilities” (Opposing Viewpoints 30). Reagan reasoned that communism was “inherently weak” and the Soviet Union was an “evil empire.” In 1988 Reagan made a speech at Moscow State University, under a statue of Lenin. In his speech, Reagan outlined his views on communism, the USSR, and Marxist-Leninist ideologies. He told the Soviet citizens that freedom was naturally superior to Marxism-Leninism. Reagan stated, “It’s hard for government planners, no matter how sophisticated, to ever substitute for millions of individuals working night and day to make their dreams come true… We Americans make no secret of our belief in freedom… It is the right to put forth an idea, scoffed at by the experts, and watch it catch fire among the people.” Reagan inspired a belief in many Soviet citizens that they could achieve freedom and peace in their lifetime. By constantly criticizing Soviet ideologies and proposing the SDI, Ronald Reagan efficiently added to the events that brought the Soviet Union to her knees (Opposing Viewpoints, 28-33).