Seven American presidents, over the course of 44 years, engaged the Soviet Union in the Cold War before Reagan's election in 1980. They used policies such as containment and détente to contain Soviet aggression and win the Cold War. Ronald Reagan came to power at the height of the Cold War, following what he saw as the failures of Détente. Reagan was a tireless supporter of American patriotism at a time when America had lost confidence in its domestic institutions and its standing on the world stage. A staunch anti-communist, Reagan often invoked anti-Soviet rhetoric, calling them an "evil empire" and challenging Soviet leaders to "tear down" the Berlin Wall. More than any other American president, Ronald Reagan took saber rattling to a whole new level. Many at the time of his administration considered him a warmonger; he revived previously canceled weapons systems projects, carried out a massive military buildup, and deployed a U.S. intermediate-range nuclear missile to Western Europe. This article will seek to answer the following question: How and why did Ronald Reagan's view of the Soviet Union change from his early days in politics to his last day as President of the United States? In 1985, after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan's anti-communist views in the 1970s and early 1980s changed to focus on a new era of friendship and cooperation between the two superpowers. This shift in rhetoric led to policies that culminated in the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. Mikhail Gorbachev's openness toward the United States and America's position of military strength were the most important factors in this policy shift. Reagan's distrust of the Soviet Union and...... middle of paper ......007).Reagan, Ronald. An American life. New York: Pocket Books, 1990. Reagan, Ronald. Ronald Reagan Presidential Papers Online. 1981-89. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/publicpapers.html. Schultz, George P. Turmoil and Triumph. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993. Skinner, Kiron, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson, eds. Reagan: In his own hand. New York: The Free Press, 2001. Weinberger, Casper. In the arena. Washington, DC, DC: Regency Publishing, Inc, 2001. Secondary Sources Brownlee, W. Elliot, and Hugh Davis Grahm, eds. The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies. Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, 2003. Dallek, Robert. Ronald Reagan: The Politics of Symbolism. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. Powaski, Ronald. The Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.