Former Soviet officials insist that Gorbachev's decisions to withdraw Soviet forces from Afghanistan and to end the arms race were made despite the Reagan buildup and SDI. In 1983 Gorbachev ...

But Reagan had meanwhile checkmated Gorbachev by refusing to budge on SDI (the Strategic Defense Initiative), a proposed shield against nuclear attacks. Reagan’s aides doubted that it could be ...

Reagan, SDI and Third World Interventionism; The Polish Crisis, 1980-1981; the Second Cold War and intra-German rapprochement; the Soviet Union's systemic crisis and imperial overstretch; Gorbachev ...