Mikhail Gorbachev, with Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Gorbachev's accession to power helped bring to an end the Cold War.

Assessing the Soviet threat represented the most important reason for the founding of the CIA, and, as we have seen throughout the term, became one of its most controversial tasks--just think of Team B. So how did the agency fare in terms of understanding the end of the Cold War? That's today's subject. All the documents are CIA National Intelligence Estimates, all recently declassified as part of Langley's own program of glasnost.