Meanwhile, the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, were making major breakthroughs in reducing military forces and defusing the nuclear threat. Each agreement that was made kindled renewed hope that world peace could be achieved—so much so that writer John Elson noted in September 1989: “The final days of the ’80s, to many commentators, represent a kind of farewell to arms. The cold war appears all but over; peace seems to be breaking out in many parts of the world.”

Ending the Cold War

Author Selbourne says: “The pattern of the collapse of the eastern European system was remarkably constant.” He then adds: “The catalyst was clearly Gorbachev’s assumption of power in Moscow in March 1985 and his ending of the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’, which fatally deprived eastern Europe’s regimes of the assurance of Soviet assistance and intervention in the event of popular uprising.”

The New Encyclopædia Britannica calls Gorbachev “the single most important initiator of a series of events in late 1989 and 1990 that transformed the political fabric of Europe and marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.”

Of course, Gorbachev could not have ended the Cold War alone. Indicative of what would soon follow, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher said after first meeting him: “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.” Furthermore, the unique personal relationship that Thatcher and American president Reagan enjoyed enabled her to convince him that it was the course of wisdom to work with Gorbachev. Gail Sheehy, author of the book Gorbachev—The Making of the Man Who Shook the World, concludes: “Thatcher could congratulate herself on being, ‘in a very real sense, godmother to the Reagan-Gorbachev relationship.’”

As has often happened in history, the key people had been in place at the opportune time to effect changes that otherwise might not have taken place.