e Twentieth century. Both men understood what drove Americans to action and both men relied on their personal morals to direct their paths. Reagan, like Wilson before him, understood that the United States would find its ultimate inspiration in historical ideals, not in geopolitical analysis (Kissinger 767). Reagan also believed that Americans had the moral obligation to spread democracy, again very similar to Wilson and his spread of national self-determination. Reagan believed that Eat-West relations would improve if he could make the Soviet Union share his fear of a nuclear doomsday. Surprisingly Reagan's rhetoric did not stop negotiations. By his second term, Reagan had opened an East-West dialogue of a scope and intensity not seen since the era of dtente under Nixon (Kissinger 769). This time however, Reagan had the public support that Nixon had so desperately needed and wanted. Reagan framed the ideological conflict as a battle between good and evil, even sinking so low as to call the Soviet Union the Evil Empire. In spite of his framing device Reagan realized that the battle could not be fought to the end but rather, that it must end through Soviet enlightenment about the American system and democracy (Kissinger 769). From this point on, Reagan's goal was to have a Soviet premier visit the United States so that Reagan could display the positives of democracy and break the Soviet Union from the core. After communication with Brezhnev and his successors, Reagan finally got his wish for a Soviet premier to visit the United States in Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan believed that suspicion of the United States was ingrained in the Soviet system and history. He was right in this belief. It had been part of the United States foreign policy in dealing with the Soviet Union since Truman (Kissinger 770). Since Reagan did not believe irreconcilable differences existed his plan remained strictly American utopian (Kissinger 771). Re...
