oh, Gorbachev ended the Cold War?? It had nothing to do with Ronald Reagan, Peace through Strength or Pope JP2 for that matter.
Good to know Gorbachev decided to end it all.
Helmut Kohl, too.
If anything, Yeltsin ended it.
Complete rewrite of history. Gorbachev gets all the credit.
As an analogy, when a boxer is getting beat to a pulp and his corner man throws in the towel, you could say the corner man ended the fight. Reagan and Thatcher (and the US tax payer) were surely more responsible for the end of the Soviet Union. They were Muhammad Ali in the Thrilla in Manila, while Gorbachev was Frazier's (USSR's) corner man.
Sadly, Gorbachev outlived his legacy and watched Putin try to rebuild the Soviet Empire. Similarly, Bush Jr is living to see his legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan destroyed.
Lech Walesa had a part in ending it too.