Reagan and the End of the Cold War
A hard line, a wall coming down, and the collapse of the Soviet Union
Quick facts
- Reagan presidency
- 1981-1989
- Berlin Wall speech
- June 12, 1987
- Berlin Wall breached
- November 1989
- Soviet Union dissolved
- December 25, 1991
What happened
Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980 and served from 1981 to 1989, promising tax cuts, a military buildup, and a tougher line against the Soviet Union, which he called an evil empire. Standing at the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, he challenged the Soviet leader directly: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. As Mikhail Gorbachev loosened Soviet control, the communist governments of Eastern Europe fell in 1989, and the Berlin Wall was breached in November of that year. The Soviet Union itself dissolved at the end of 1991. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin and replaced by the Russian tricolor, ending both the Soviet state and the Cold War that had defined world politics for more than four decades.
Why it matters
The end of the Cold War left the United States as the world's sole superpower and closed the era of nuclear standoff between two blocs. It also opened debates that continue about how much credit belongs to American pressure, to Soviet reformers, and to the internal failures of the communist system, and about what role the United States should play in a world without a rival superpower.
How we know
Reagan's Brandenburg Gate speech survives in the Reagan Presidential Library archives, and the collapse of the Soviet Union is documented in the State Department's diplomatic history and the contemporaneous record of 1989 to 1991.
Sources
- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Remarks on East-West Relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin · Primary source (author-declared)reaganlibrary.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. The Collapse of the Soviet Union, 1989-1992 · Reputable sourcehistory.state.gov · The domain "history.state.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Cold War → · This is the American close of the Cold War; see the Cold War timeline for the full arc of the rivalry and the events across the world that brought it to an end.