Reading a humorous article about David Hasselhoff's role in the End of the Cold War on Love The Hoff, I was reminded of my personal feelings back in those turbulent and exciting times; times of hope and uncertainty - the third and final major change of the 20th Century.


Lets open with a short quiz:
1. Who was president of the USA through much of the 1980s?

2. Who was the Pope?
3. Who was the leader of the Soviet Union?

Recent statistics suggest that 85% of Americans correctly guessed Reagan as President; 55% got John-Paul II as Pope but only 6% said Gorbachev for #3 - the chances are that if you're reading this you're one of the 6% - or not American.


One of the most famous lines of the late 20th Century came in 1987 when Ronald Reagan stood at the infamous Berlin wall and said, "Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"


Many American high school and college students believe, because their history books tell them, that when Reagan said, "Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", he set the tone for the destruction of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The simplistic view is that this was a seminal moment in history and, as the wall crumbled, so did the 'Evil Empire' - The Star Wars term adopted by Regan to describe the Soviet Block when he came to power in 1980. However, I believe this to ba amyth and am prepared to argue that the Soviet Union was going to fall with or without Reagan and indeed, that the president played a dangerous and unnecessary game of chess with the Russians, using World Stability as a pawn.


When Reagan made that famous comment, he was aware, or rather his analysts were aware, that this was precisely what Gorbachev had set out to do. As president of the Soviet Union he introduced perestroika and glasnost: openness and candor a few years earlier and was working to democratize the system from within. Reagan's irresponsible attitude in attempting to bully the Soviet leader almost lead to an ‘Old Guard’ backlash within the Kremlin that would have had far more dangerous consequences for the world than Reagan's stance justified.


It was going to happen anyway.
Gorbachev, on coming to power was increasingly aware of the corruption and strength of the Soviet armed forces. Indeed, the army was, to all intents and purposes, more influential than the government itself. This was the most important item on his political agenda and he realized early on that the best way to address the issue of military might was by gradually empowering the general populous. This was capitalized on by Reagan and others.

Critics have often sited Gorbachev’s bloody suppression of the Lithuanian revolution and others as examples of his ruthlessness and this point is well noted, even by his supporters, however, taken in the context of the political climate of the time, if he’d allowed the Baltic states to break away when they wanted to, he risked inciting a military coup that would almost certainly put the clocks back at least a decade.


However, history is written by the victors and Gorbachev’s role will always be relegated to the footnotes as long as the United States, and in particular the US press is allowed to dictate the terms.

There is an East European joke from the late 1980s that goes:
Reagan and Gorbachev had a race over 100m – Gorbachev won. The Time Magazine Headline the following day:
Reagan Takes Silver, Gorbachev Last-But-One