Ronald Reagan Unearthed

[MajGenl.Meade]

The deaths of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko in 1982, 1984 and 1985 were the precipitating cause of Gorbachev's elevation to General Secretary. He was Andropov's anointed successor in 1984 but the ailing Chernenko was pushed into place instead. When he died, Gorby was the logical (and only viable) choice.

it was time to try to make a deal

You'll have to remind me of the deal. Gorbachev's reforms inside the USSR - what did Reagan give in return for those that benefited Gorby? Nothing.

Do you refer to arms limitation deals? Certainly, Reagan's commitment to building militarily could not be matched by the Soviet economy - because, of course, it was already collapsing from its own interior contradictions. Gorbachev recognized the essential need to scale back the arms race so that he could rebuild the USSR economic structure.

In 1988 it was Gorbachev who announced the amazing conversion of thinking; the freedom of nations to choose their own leadership and the reduction/removal of Soviet troops in the "socialist republics". He intended to encourage a new, more liberal, association of "states" (so to speak) that would reinvigorate the CCCP economy. Instead he got the disintegration of the Union. That is what had nothing to do with Reagan (or the USA).

Gorbachev won a Nobel Peace Prize. But he never did "tear down this wall". That was the result of East German civilian pressure and the weakness of the regime to which Gorby had turned over the responsibility. They had to decide what to do and in the end they just couldn't become mass killers. It was the unavoidable result of Gorbachev's unintended "freedom".

From a historical perspective, it's wrong to give Reagan credit for the fall of the USSR. It's right to give him whatever credit results from not simply caving in to anti-militaristic doves in the USA.

[Burning Petard]

Every military conflict that has been a victory for Russia was won by General Winter.

The USSR collapsed under the combined pressures of falling Russian birthrate throughout the 20th century, which meant it could not support the arms race with the west beyond a Potemkin Village strategy to maintain itself as a super power; and the resources required to prop up its empire of client/puppet states.

How could it be otherwise, if the Marxist State is so inefficient as my 9th grade Civics teacher, and every issue of the Reader's Digest in the '50s claimed?

snailgate

[liberty]

Every military conflict that has been a victory for Russia was won by General Winter.

The USSR collapsed under the combined pressures of falling Russian birthrate throughout the 20th century, which meant it could not support the arms race with the west beyond a Potemkin Village strategy to maintain itself as a super power; and the resources required to prop up its empire of client/puppet states.

How could it be otherwise, if the Marxist State is so inefficient as my 9th grade Civics teacher, and every issue of the Reader's Digest in the '50s claimed?

snailgate

Poppycock, what can you possibly mean by inefficient; surely, *workers work for the glory of work, don’t you?

* A slogan used by the Soviets during the Cold War.