President Ronald Reagan served as the 40th president of the United States. He is one of the most renowned influential presidents of the United States. He began his career in Hollywood before joining politics as the 33rd Governor of California. As a governor of California, he raised taxes to create a surplus state budget. He is also famous for challenging protestors at the University of California.
As a president, Reagan reduced inflation from 12.5% to 4.4% in his first term in office. Besides, he managed to increase military budget exponentially, escalated the war on drug trafficking, and addressed the threats of the Cold War. In his second term, he capitalized on strengthening the US foreign missions by bombing Libya, ending the Cold War, and oversaw the weakening of the Soviet Union. He is ranked among the most successful US presidents in the history of White House occupants (Sebetsyen 67).
On the other hand, Mikhail Gorbachev is renowned for his contribution to the end of the Soviet Union. He was the last president of the Soviet Union until it collapsed in 1991. He is credited for his policies of openness and restructuring when he served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that contributed to the ending of the Cold War. Just like Ronald Reagan, Premier Mikhail Gorbachev played an essential role in the ending of the Cold War and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century. Therefore, the two leaders have similarities regarding their leadership positions and the mission of ending the Cold War that existed in the 1980s.
Works Cited
Sebetsyen, Victor. Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, New York: Pantheon Books, 2009. Print.