Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration crisis and stated that the Soviet Union "runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens." This was before Gorbachev rose to power in 1985. Reagan later wrote in his autobiography "An American Life" that he "did not see the profound changes that would occur in the Soviet Union after Gorbachev rose to power." To confront the Soviet Union's serious economic problems, Gorbachev implemented bold new policies for freedom and openness called glasnost and perestroika. Reagan relaxed his aggressive rhetoric toward the Soviet Union after Gorbachev became chairman of the Soviet Politburo in
1996 Mikhail Gorbachev presidential campaign "war on crime". As leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev had desired to implement more gradual reforms in an effort to preserve the country's socialism while providing a democratization of its society. This contrasted with many of the reforms which Yeltsin had implemented, which sought rapid change and disregarded the country's socialist structure. Gorbachev hoped that, if elected, he would be able to halt course and implement his own, more mild, vision of reforms. He hoped to create a social democratic state structure in Russia. One of Gorbachev's top stated priorities was to put an end to the war in