Mr. Netkovick
Honors Senior Seminar
3 November 2016
Ronald Reagan: “The American Hero”
Communism and Capitalism. This was all anyone in America cared about during the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s. During the 80’s, political hostility during the Cold War was near its peak. The Cold War was what defined the political tension that existed between the Soviet’s eastern “bloc” countries and the US-led Western powers. However, there was no bloodshed during this war, thus given its name, the Cold War. During Reagan’s presidency, the Soviet Union in the east was the capital of communism and they were looking to spread their beliefs to other uninfluenced and even influenced lands. Communists in the 80’s wanted the world …show more content…
Reagan’s foreign policies did help to defeat communism, however The Soviet Union’s internal destruction, societal decay and …show more content…
These foreign policies and this agreement is said to have actually ended the Cold War. Perestroika is said to be the political and economic reconstruction made to the communist party that was enforced because of the agreement made between Reagan and Gorbachev. While Perestroika dealt with more of the Soviet Union’s Political Problems Glasnost dealt with more of the Soviet Union’s Social and Economic problems. Glasnost was mainly supposed to give more rights and freedoms to the Soviet people. But Perestroika and Glasnost only came about in the Soviet Union because of the population’s discontent with aspects of communism which lead to small revolutions forcing political change in the Soviet Union. Politically, Perestroika was supposed to finally allow citizens to have a slight say in their government and it was supposed to make many changes Economically also. Perestroika was supposed to de-monopolize some semi-private businesses and end the price controls established by the government that had been active for decades. The goal was to create a semi-free market system, reflecting successful capitalist practices. Glasnost was mainly supposed to include more people in the political process through freedom of expression. This led to a less censoring of the media, which in