the two countries reached an arms reduction treaty.
In 1988, Moscow left Afghanistan. Ultraconservative
supporters of the president attacked him for his
about-face with regard to Moscow, but Reagan coun-
terattacked with the same vitriol he had once re-
served for the Soviets.
The last piece of the puzzle was the dismantling
of the Soviet’s Eastern European empire. Reagan
chided Gorbachev for not permitting the final dem-
ocratic reforms in his “satellite countries.” On June
12, 1987, Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall—the sym-
bol of the division between East and West, erected in
1961—and shouted, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall!” Gorbachev responded by telling his commu-
nist allies that Moscow would not interfere in their
internal affairs. One by one, the countries of Eastern
Europe broke with their communist leadership and
introduced democratically elected governments.
Canada Canadian relations with the Soviet Union
after World War II mirrored those of the United
States, as both countries were members of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In the early
years the Liberal Party prime minister Pierre Tru-
deau pushed the United States for a more concilia-
tory tone. He disagreed with Reagan about linking
disarmament to Soviet behavior. In 1984, however,
the Conservative Brian Mulroney replaced Trudeau
and adopted as harsh a stance as that of Reagan.
Mulroney was even more reluctant than the Ameri-
can president to come to terms with Gorbachev in
the last years of the decade. In 1988, Canada ex-
pelled some Soviet diplomats accused of military
and industrial espionage. However, both the Soviets
and Canadians attempted to exploit differences from
Washington’s policies. Bilateral talks between Ot-
tawa and Moscow began in 1984 and led to an agree-
ment in 1989 on cooperation in the Arctic and the
north, with Canada providing much technical assis-
tance.Impact The 1980’s witnessed a remarkable reversal
of history centered on Soviet relations with the West
and particularly the United States. The forty-year-The Eighties in America Soviet Union and North America 893
U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev relax together during their first summit meeting in Geneva, Switzer-
land, in November, 1985.(Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)