US Diplomatic History: The Gorbachev File

Throughout the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy had a keen focus on the Soviet Union and its threatening ideologies. Upon the assumption of power by Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union realized concurrent changes in their government in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Equally so, a dramatic shift was witnessed in U.S. foreign policy, which included a new focus on the creation of better relations with the Soviet Union. While the United States maintained a fervent desire to repress Communism and its expansion throughout the world; leaders in its government believed that there were shared ideas between the West and East that could be worked on... together. The world had changed immensely since the end of World War II, and partly as a result of the leadership of the United States and the Soviet Union, there was a window of opportunity that allowed for visionary leaders to drive unprecedented historical change in U.S.-Soviet relations.