Let’s Learn about the Cold War: Part 24 – Ronald Reagan Published Nov. 16, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Few American presidents remain as culturally relevant as Ronald Reagan, in part because Reagan has become an icon of American conservative politics, and in part because before his entry into politics, he was a Hollywood movie star. He was also president through some of the last days of the Cold War. Born in the Midwest, Reagan began his career in radio before breaking into film. As a reserve Army officer, he was called to active duty during World War II. Reagan never left the United States during the war, and afterward he returned to Hollywood, where he informed on individuals in the industry suspected of harboring communist sensibilities to the FBI. Reagan became Governor of California in 1967, and served for eight years before pursuing the presidency. His first bid was unsuccessful, but in 1980 he was elected. President Reagan immediately took a hard line with the Soviet Union, shunning détente and initiating a military buildup as part of a broader strategy of challenging the USSR. By the 1980s, the domestic issues within the Soviet Union were beginning to show, particularly in its economy, and Reagan correctly predicted that the Soviet Union would collapse if aggressively challenged. Reagan worked with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to keep the pressure on. One illustration of Reagan's approach to foreign policy was the Invasion of Grenada. When revolutionaries staged a coup to set up a Marxist-Leninist government in Grenada, Reagan invaded with a force made up largely of Special Forces, decisively defeating the dictatorship and restoring the previous government. Reagan's strategy was assisted by the disastrous Soviet-Afghan War. The USSR, already struggling under the social and financial weight of Communism, exacerbated by a lack of comprehensive economic vision and leadership in Moscow, was weakened even further. The massive Soviet military, the most powerful in the world at the time, was already a staggeringly expensive burden for the USSR. Tensions flared on Reagan's watch when Soviet fighters shot down a civilian passenger flight in 1983. Korean Air Lines Flight 007 had violated Soviet airspace, and an American congressman was killed. The situation didn't escalate to a crisis of the same magnitude as the Cuban Missile Crisis, as both sides were eager to avoid war. The full impact of Reagan's foreign policy is still hotly debated, and his efforts at home created mixed results. Reagan himself was a popular president, particularly after surviving an assassination attempt, but his economic policies, known collectively as "Reaganomics", and the War on Drugs have a controversial legacy. However, the best-known moment of Reagan's presidency with regards to the Cold War was his speech at the Berlin Wall in 1987. The Soviet Union was now being led by Leonid Brezhnev's successor, the comparatively liberal-minded Mikhail Gorbachev. If there was going to be reform from Moscow, Gorbachev was the best, and possibly last chance for it before the USSR's situation grew irreversibly dire, and Reagan challenged him to do it. "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Next time: Mikhail Gorbachev