Mikhail Gorbachev was the last of a trio of world leaders — including U.S. President Ronald Reagan and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — who ended the Cold War and reshaped the globe.

Former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 16, 1990. (Wojtek Laski/Getty Images) With strength came support.

Mikhail Gorbachev stepped onto a Washington street and began shaking hands to cheers and applause in 1990 — a bit of unaccustomed political showmanship worthy of his friend Ronald Reagan.

President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 8, 1987, as they met for the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Former President Ronald Reagan's 1987 speech urging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall has resurfaced following the death of Gorbachev.

In hindsight, President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last ruler of the Soviet Union, were the two most unexpected people of the 1980s.Gorbachev’s passing Tuesday at age 91 represents ...

Mikhail S. Gorbachev with President Ronald Reagan and President-elect George Bush in 1988. Credit... Mike Sargent/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ...

Mikhail Gorbachev died this week, but much commentary gives Ronald Reagan scant credit for engineering the fall of the Soviet Union.

It was a miracle to see Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, signing a peace treaty with President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. in 1987.

"Based on the incredible true story, Reykjavik takes place during the Cold War at its most dangerous point, when two ...

President Ronald Reagan, left, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow's Red Square, with St. Basil's Cathedral in the background in May of 1988.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who died Tuesday at age 91, was a paradoxical Soviet leader when the world needed one. He had almost total power upon taking office but undertook reforms that undermined that power.