Cold War (1985–1991) reduced some strategic arms unilaterally. Fundamental to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Gorbachev policy initiatives of Restructuring ("Perestroika") and Openness ("Glasnost") had ripple effects throughout the Soviet world, including eventually making it impossible to reassert central control over Warsaw Pact member states without resorting to military force. On June 12, 1987, Reagan challenged Gorbachev to go further with his reforms and democratization by tearing down the Berlin Wall. In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate next to the wall, Reagan stated: While the aging communist European leaders kept their states in the grip of "normalization", Gorbachev's reformist policies
Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration stepped forward to shake his hand and to offer sincere cooperation." For his role, Gorbachev received the first Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize. Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration The foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration was the foreign policy of the United States from 1981 to 1989. The main goal was winning the Cold War and the rollback of Communism—which was achieved in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, though most disagree with whom to credit, and how much. It was characterized by