Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” & the Collapse of the Soviet Union Essay

One of the popular theories says that the US president Ronald Reagan, who activated the arms race, which the Soviet economy was unable to sustain, buried the Soviet Union. Moreover, it is believed that president Reagan saw the reason for the inability of the USSR to be on an equal footing with the United States in a strategic arms race. The USSR was unable to continue to spend almost 40% of its research work and 28% of its gross domestic product on military needs. As a result, without seeing positive prospects in rivalry with the unbeatable economic and military machine of the United States, the Soviet leaders had no choice except to reject communism and agree to the collapse of the Soviet empire. Thus, the main aim of the assignment is to explore the ways in which Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” proposal influenced the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

To begin, it is important to mention that different sources of literature explored the issue of discussion with many details. Easterly’s and Fischer’s review “The Soviet Economic Decline” and “The Strategic Defense Initiative and the End of the Cold War” created by Lazzari, Luigi L. are two credible sources for the continuation of investigation of the issue of discussion. The first source presents an opinion of independent analysts and researchers, while the second source presents the official position of the United States, as well as it includes presentation of facts and decisions.

Using dates and analyzing facts, it can be mentioned that on March 23, 1983, Ronald Reagan, speaking on national television, for the first time announced a program for developing a strategic defense initiative (SDI), which was later called the “Star Wars program”. It means that Ronald Reagan, unlike his predecessors, announced a tough course against the USSR, which he called the “evil empire.” SDI was created for the purpose to significantly reduce the effectiveness of offensive nuclear weapons and prevent the temptation to strike “the first blow” (Lazzari, 2008).

For the purpose to explain the necessity to use official source of information, it is possible to mention that according to its interpretation it becomes obvious that according Reagan’s program, military satellites were to be installed in near-earth orbit to destroy nuclear missiles of the enemy that were sent to the territory of the United States and its allies. These satellites were supposed to be equipped with laser weapons and other means to disable missiles (at that time mostly Soviet). For ordinary Americans, all this was reminiscent of the footage of J. Lucas’s famous movie “Star Wars”, released in 1977.

Being more specific in exploring Reagan’s influence on the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there is a necessity to analyze Reagan’s decisions with more details. For instance, a great influence had the fact that in May 1982, Reagan signed an eight-page directive that determined the US economic strategy towards the USSR. The document contained instructions for specific units of the presidential administration, and the emphasis was on exploiting the weaknesses of the Soviet economy. The aim was to undermine the Soviet economy by forcibly involving Moscow in technological wars. In November 1982, it was explicitly announced in presidential circles that the purpose of the policy of the United States was to undermine the Soviet economy by attacking its “strategic triad,” that is, the basic industries that make up the basis of the national economy of the Soviet Union.

Moreover, there also exists an opinion that the Soviet Union’s economy was collapsed by the reason that it could not withstand competition with the United States, primarily in the arms race, which Reagan was trying to impose on the Soviet Union. Until recently, it was considered an axiom that the program of this race forced the Soviet Union to increase its military expenditures many times, which led to its economic collapse. However, economists William Easterly and Stanley Fisher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who analyzed the reasons of the collapse of the Soviet economy commissioned by the World Bank concluded that the military expenditures of the USSR were not the straw that broke the back of the camel named “The Empire of Evil” (Easterly and Fischer, 1995). The Soviet economy, as objectively confirmed by the authors of this report, had a large margin of safety before it began to be decomposed from its heart by different “marketers” like Yasin (Easterly and Fischer, 1995). Thus, it becomes clear that the rate was made not as much on economic and military factors as by the actions of agents of influence capable of blowing up communism from the inside.

To conclude, we have explored the main steps that were made by Ronald Reagan in his attempts to destroy the Soviet Union, and have proved that “Star Wars” proposal was not the only instrument that helped the United States to influence the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Moreover, we have explored two credible sources of information that gave a good explanation of the events of the past and have found that Reagan’s plans to create a Strategic Defense Initiative and Reagan’s military spending have played an important role in the destruction of the USSR, while Reagan himself has influenced the situation in a certain way too. The fact is in the following: Reagan responded to Gorbachev’s initiatives in the field of arms control. Reagan had the moral authority and political capital necessary to carry out serious arms reductions together with Gorbachev. This allowed Gorbachev to concentrate on solving the internal problems of the USSR, that is, on the creation of socialism with a human face. Reagan allowed Gorbachev to deepen internal reforms and use the generation of people who believed in renewed socialism. That is, socialist ideology also made a great contribution to the destruction of the USSR, and Reagan’s “Star wars” became a complement to the process of the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Works Cited

Easterly, W. and Fischer, S. The Soviet Economic Decline. World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, Vol. 9 (3), 1995. Available at https://academic.oup.com/wber/article-abstract/9/3/341/1666811?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Lazzari, Luigi L. The Strategic Defense Initiative and the End of the Cold War. Naval Postgraduate School. Monterey, California, 2008. Available at https://calhoun.nps.edu/bitstream/handle/10945/4210/08Mar_Lazzari.pdf?sequence=1

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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