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
Mikhail Gorbachev of reform was to prop up the centrally planned economy—not to transition to market socialism. Speaking in late summer 1985 to the secretaries for economic affairs of the central committees of the East European communist parties, Gorbachev said: "Many of you see the solution to your problems in resorting to market mechanisms in place of direct planning. Some of you look at the market as a lifesaver for your economies. But, comrades, you should not think about lifesavers but about the ship, and the ship is socialism." Gorbachev initiated his new policy of "perestroika" (literally "restructuring" in Russian) and its