US President Ronald Reagan, with British Prime MInister Margaret Thatcher, in the Oval Office. (November 16th, 1988.) With Pope John Paul II, their great achievement was to confront the USSR, leading first to the fall of the Berlin Wall and later to the dissolution of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Writer Tony Barber laments the lack of moral leadership in an increasingly dangerous world.Executive Office of the President of the United States.