<P> This period of the Cold War would continue through US President Reagan's first term (1981--1985), through the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, the brief interim period of Soviet leadership consisting of Yuri Andropov (1982--1984), and Konstantin Chernenko (1984--1985). This phase in the Cold War concluded with the ascension of reform - minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, who brought a commitment to reduce tensions between the East and West, and bring about major reforms in Soviet society . </P> <P> In 1984, journalist Nicholas Lemann interviewed Reagan Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and summarized the strategy of the Reagan administration to roll back the Soviet Union: </P> <Dl> <Dd> Their society is economically weak, and it lacks the wealth, education, and technology to enter the information age . They have thrown everything into military production, and their society is starting to show terrible stress as a result . They can't sustain military production the way we can . Eventually it will break them, and then there will be just one superpower in a safe world--if, only if, we can keep spending ." </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> Their society is economically weak, and it lacks the wealth, education, and technology to enter the information age . They have thrown everything into military production, and their society is starting to show terrible stress as a result . They can't sustain military production the way we can . Eventually it will break them, and then there will be just one superpower in a safe world--if, only if, we can keep spending ." </Dd>

Why can the period of tension between the us and ussr be considered a cold war