Ronald Reagan did not win the Cold War. This is because the ideologies of the western world were accepted by the leaders of the Soviet Union. While some scholars may argue that the Reagan administration was “knocking on an open door” (Gaddis 349), this was not the case. Rather, the pressure from Western popular culture penetrated the wall of the Soviet Union. As Deudney and Ikenberry write, “It was not so much abstract liberal principles but rather the Western way of life-the material and cultural manifestations of the West’s freedoms-that subverted the Soviet vision” (356). In this, it was not Reagan’s policies that were attractive to the Soviets, but rather it was their desire for the freedom of the west, found in their popular culture, that
