🚀 go-pugleaf

Once again, my apologies for taking so long
to get back to this newsgroup....

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 06:03:52 GMT, "alohacyberian" <alohacyberian@att.net> wrote:

>"Henrietta K Thomas" <hkt@xnet.com> wrote in message
>news:e19rc0ps7mcl2su4m1gc9hicn4rt7e3ifu@4ax.com...
>> On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 08:17:31 GMT, "alohacyberian" 
>> <alohacyberian@att.net> wrote:
<...>
>> >Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev
>> >and Ronald Reagan knew perfectly well that the Soviet
>> >Union was on tenterhooks. I recommend the book
>> >_Lenin's Tomb: the Last Days of the Soviet Empire _ by
>> >David Remick, a Leftwing Liberal journalist at the
>> > _Washington Post_. KM
>>
>> You left out Andropov.  It was he who first saw the
>> handwriting on the wall and gave Gorbachev full
>> authority to investigate to see what could be done.
>> But neither Andropov nor Gorbachev nor Lech Walesa
>> nor even the Pope could have given DoS the information.
>> Only Ronald Reagan could do that.  He chose not to and
>> apparently preferred to let the chips fall where they may.
>>
>> >Credit where credit is due: Ronald Reagan won the
>> >Cold War and brought about >the demise of the Soviet
>> >Union. KM
>>
>> Sorry, I disagree.  Reagan, IMO, gets credit only for
>> reaching out to Gorbachev and treating him like a
>> human being, while Bush Sr. gets credit for rudely
>> pushing Gorbachev aside in his haste to declare
>> victory.  The lion's share of the credit for ending the
>> cold war goes to Gorbachev, IMO.  Had he not been
>> there, all Reagan's efforts would probably have been
>> for naught.
<...>
>Yes, I must admit I did overlook Yuri Andropov as 
>indicated in the works of Pavel Sudoplatov and David
>Remick. While I personally give more credit to Ronald
>Reagan than to Mikhail Gorbachev, I think you have 
>a point well taken and perhaps I could be persuaded 
>to your belief given more time to consider the position 
>and a more thorough knowledge of Mikhail Gorbachev 
>whom I consider to be one of the giants in Soviet and
>Russian history though he's been given short shrift by
>Western academe and media. His impact on every 
>citizen in Russia and the former Soviet Union is 
>incalculable. The actions of Ronald Reagan in no way
>diminish the stature of Gorbachev and vice-versa. KM

I will go along with that.  It took a great deal of courage
for Gorbachev to go before his people and start telling
the truth.  That was the beginning of the end of the Cold 
War and the breakup of the Soviet regime.

You're posting from Hawaii, right?  Why don't you
check with your local libraries and see what they
have on Gorbachev and the demise of the Soviet
Union?  I have maybe a dozen books here giving all
sorts of background information on what happened
and why.  A few titles to look for:

Perestroika by Mikhail Gorbachev.
At The Highest Levels by Michael Beschloss & Strobe Talbot.
Why Gorbachev Happened by Robert G. Kaiser.
The Man Who Changed The World by Gail Sheehy.

You may also wish to keep your eyes open for a book
scheduled for release next month entitled Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War
Ended by Jack F. Matlock.

Enjoy!