Mikhail Gorbachev

Caleb Gonzales Professor Marks US Government 2305 8 December 2015 Strategic Defense Initiative Long time ago in a galaxy not to far away, President Ronald Reagan initiated the Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, as coined by critics. The initiative was formed on the 23rd of March in the year of 1983. The initiative was proposed at the time as a U.S. strategic defense system against Soviet Union Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, or ICBMs, by intercepting the missiles or warheads at…

gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB) would be dismantled forever. Russian and Western observers viewed the toppling of the “Iron Felix” Dzerzhinsky statue in August 1991 as the symbolic end of the era of Soviet political police repression. Subsequently, Gorbachev appointed Vadim Bakatin to reform the KGB. But what constituted reform? In December 1991, the KGB’s responsibilities were spread among several new agencies. Nevertheless, changing the name of organizations and re-drawing bureaucratic…

On June 12, 1987, former President Ronald Reagan gave one of his famous speeches, “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate.” On a superficial level, Reagan uses the speech to petition to the Soviet Union for peace, nuclear and chemical arms reduction, and the demolition of the Berlin Wall. He also highlights the progress and prosperity that have arisen in the western world since the division between communism and democracy was established. Beyond the surface, Reagan subtly disparages communism while…

On the 12th of June, 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivered a powerful and emotional speech in west Berlin, Germany. This speech was addressing the Berlin Wall, and all of the political issues that came with it. 26 years prior to Reagan’s speech, the Berlin wall was built to separate the communist East from the “Allied” west, this wall was extremely controversial and kept any people from leaving west Berlin without great difficulty. Reagan’s speech had immense impact on Berlin, 2 years after…

Worth-watching historical movie If anybody thinks historical films are all about boring and wasting time, this movie would change their mind. Bridge of Spy was based on a true story of U-2 incident in 1960. A Soviet spy, Rudoft Abel, was arrested, and James Donovan, an insurrance lawyer at that time, was chosen to be his defender. Francis Gary Power, a pilot of US army, was arrested by the Soviet Union after failing his misson. In the meantime, the young Frederic Pryor, an American college…

Anatomy of a Dictatorship - Fulbrook (1995) Book Review Published in the decade after reunification and forty years of Soviet led dictatorship, Fulbrook’s Anatomy of a Dictatorship was released to great anticipation. Fulbrook describes the central thesis of her book to be around the idea ‘that popular discontent alone was not sufficient enough to fell the system.’ It’s clear from the outset that Fulbrook wanted to move away from the traditional historiography around the GDR, in order to…

peacekeeping abroad is able to express the values of their country. Through the years in past recognition, Lester B. Pearson was a well-known advocator in the promotion of peace and security during the Suez Crisis in 1956. Canada’s political views were greatly dominated by Great Britain, but in the event of the Suez Crisis, Pearson allowed Canada’s views to undergo a transition that was promoting the interests of Canada and our urge to act on the international scale (Carroll, 2009). Through…

Ronald Reagan and the People Imagine living in an America in which people had safety protocols for a nuclear weapon strike. Imagine living with the thought of nuclear attack always on the back of everyone’s mind. These were the thoughts of many American’s before Ronald Reagan took office. “When Ronald Reagan took over the White House, the end of the Cold War not only seemed a very long way off—nobody in fact thought in such terms at the time—but in many respects it actually looked as if the USSR…

The Soviet Union was able to stay together for a while, functioning quite well under an oppressive dictator. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union caused a lot of things to happen. The Soviet Union collapsed because of many political, economic, and social factors. The Berlin Wall started as a barbed wire fence and grew into a 12 foot high concrete wall. Wall became a symbol of communist tyranny. For 4 weeks people came to the Berlin wall with Sledge hammers and chipped off pieces as…

Although Ronald Reagan is the face of the “End of the Soviet Union” I honestly believe it wouldn’t have been done if it wasn’t for Reagan’s officials in the executive branch. Reagans administration officials played a huge role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Reagan administration fought for a wide array of attempts that increased confrontations with the U.S.S.R. and its allies. Reagan along with the help of his officials, increased in U.S. defense spending designed to update existing…