The day a leader becomes infected with freedom

At the start of the 1980s the Cold War begins heating up. All signs point to escalation— until Mikhail Gorbachev appears on the scene. On March 11, 1985, he is chosen to head the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He curtails the powers of the Party and the intelligence agencies, ends the arms race, and reforms the USSR so radically that he simultaneously ushers in its end and paves the way for German reunification. But why this change of heart? The answer lies in the past: During his work with the Party in the 1970s Gorbachev was allowed to travel to the West, which greatly affected him and his policies. In other words: He caught the freedom bug and took it home.