You have to give Hitler an assist for ending the war in the European theater by offing himself. /s
By that logic, Karl Donitz ended the war in Europe and Emperor Hirohito ended the war in the Pacific.You are quite right. Gorby surrendered. He surrendered precisely because Reagan out-bid him on defense spending, and the threat to spend ever more on defense, with particular high marks going to Reagan's pushing of the much-maligned (by leftist dunderheads like Dean) "Star Wars".
Gorby was already all-in when Reagan raised the stakes, and threatened to raise them some more and the KGB thug put on his green-eye-shade, did some good old fashioned cost accounting, and surrendered. Simple as that.
Ronald The Great won the Cold War on Planet Earth. He did it with the help of a lot of good Americans, particularly those in uniform, but he was the Commander in Chief and -- like the win going to the pitcher in baseball -- the victory goes to him.