By the 1980s and the emergence of Reagan and Gorbachev the Cold War was reaching its 40th anniversary. Citizen and leaders alike on both sides had become accustomed to the constant that was the fear of imminent nuclear holocaust. Events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated to not just both countries but the world how close it had been to a nuclear war. This fear permeated everything and it must have been compounded by the realization that the two superpowers were not disclosing all threats or plans and many events were transpiring behind closed doors. The thought that nuclear annihilation was only 15 minutes away across the Atlantic was terrifying. Both sides perceived that the other wanted a nuclear war. Reagan hated the Soviet Union and its ideology he often made this abundantly clear in his speeches. On the other side according to McMahon, “Soviet leaders had truly come to believe the Reagan administration of undertaking a preemptive nuclear war
US Hydrogen Bomb Test over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean
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