Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev had been discussing Cold War Resolution for a long time to no avail. Mikhail Gorbachev partially agreed to resolve the Cold War if Reagan stopped his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) project. The SDI was a missile defense system that would use strategic ballistic missiles to combat possible Soviet attacks. The Berlin Wall was built because during the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin provided a geographic loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. . In response, East German communist authorities built a wall surrounding West Berlin. The wall was built overnight and was heavily guarded to prevent more Germans from fleeing west. 47,000 soldiers stood guard at the wall and were responsible for many deaths that occurred there. Throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, thousands of people from East Berlin moved to West Berlin to reunite with their families and escape communist repression. In an attempt to stop this outflow, the East German government, on the night of August 12, 1961, began sealing all entry points into West Berlin from East Berlin by placing barbed wire and posting sentries. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the days and weeks to come, construction began on a concrete block wall, complete with guard towers and minefields around it. The Berlin Wall managed to completely isolate the two parts of Berlin. The US government responded angrily. American troop commanders in West Berlin even began making plans to demolish the wall, but gave up on the idea when the Soviets moved armored units into position to protect it. The West German government was furious at America's lack of action, but President John F. Kennedy believed that “A wall is definitely better than a war.” In an attempt to reassure West Germans that the United States was not abandoning them, Kennedy stood before the Berlin Wall in June 1963 and famously declared, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” ("I'm from Berlin!"). Since the word "Berliner" was commonly called a jelly donut in much of Germany, Kennedy's misuse of German grammar was also translated as "I am a jelly donut." However, due to the context of his speech, Kennedy's intended meaning of standing together with West Berlin in its rivalry with communist East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic was understood by the German people. Reagan and Gorbachev had developed a mutual friendship with each other. but they had also had frequent disagreements. Gorbachev wanted Reagan to shut down the SDI, or Strategic Defense Initiative, designed to protect the United States from ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. The agreement between Reagan and Gorbachev is what ended the Cold War. Reagan and Gorbachev had a series of meetings and conferences, but after one meeting in which Reagan refused to shut down the SDI program they left on bad terms with both very disappointed. After that disappointing meeting, Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate calling on Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was built by the communists to hold back the Germans and remained so even after that timeline. Gorbachev then began to see from Reagan's point of view and agreed to sign a peace treaty between Russia and the United States to stop the Cold War. The wall was torn down two years later by the East Germans.