Reagan’s policies may have contributed to the fall of communism, but it is more likely that the internal changes in the Soviet Union and the countries it ruled contributed more to the end of the Cold War. Internal changes in the Soviet Union and the countries it ruled were the leading causes of the Cold War’s end. Reagan’s measures may have accelerated the end of the Cold War, but they were not the main factor.
There was internal unrest in the Soviet Bloc due to the failure of many foreign leaders to provide the outcomes that communism promised. Rationing was necessary since there was not enough food for everyone. The Soviet Union’s citizens became disillusioned due to Western media and communication because capitalism and excesses seemed superior to rationing and starvation. Many of the nations that the Soviet Union ruled over disapproved of Moscow’s leadership as well. In internal strife in the Soviet Bloc, the Soviet Union sponsored Afghanistan’s wars and ignored several domestic problems. The Baltic States and Ukraine both had independence-related revolutions. Ultimately, the USSR’s internal unrest and the pressure the West put on it from the outside resulted in Gorbachev and Bush Sr. meeting in Malta and announcing.
The ideological gap between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the Cold War. Following World War II, the two countries competed for supremacy; as a result, there was an arms race and a space race. However, the end of the Cold War was primarily a result of internal changes in the Soviet Union and the countries it ruled. When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, the United States and its allies stepped in to fill the following power vacuum.
Reference
Course hero. Boundless US History | | Course Hero. (n.d.). Web.