🚀 go-pugleaf

"Thomas�" <mauicop@hawaii-politics.com> wrote in message
news:m8fsc0h5156f5c5o7urb37tneon019jbd7@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 08:36:22 -0500, Henrietta K Thomas <hkt@xnet.com>
> wrote:
>
> [snip]
> >>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.
> >
> >YMMV
> >
> >Followups to us.issues.
>
> [newsgroups restored]
>
> You are completely ignoring the precipitating event that was the
> impetus for the collapse of the Soviet union.  The event that ended
> Russian intransigence, and enabled substantial progress at the SALT
> talks, was Reagan's stubborn insistence that the Strategic Defense
> Initiative(SDI) continue to be funded, along with a general expansion
> of military spending.  In their attempts to compete militarily, the
> Soviet Union began a slow but steady economic meltdown that included
> their drawing down substantively their gold reserves to gain foreign
> capital, as the ruble had become a joke.
>
> That was the absolute cause/effect for the Soviet willingness to
> reduce nuclear stocks, open their markets somewhat, and the economic
> hard times that resulted in huge bread lines and shortage of
> foodstuffs and **gasp** Vodka, enabled radical change to take place.
> The beginning, the middle, and the end all flowed from actions and
> policies instituted by Ronald Wilson Reagan.
> Andropov, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin were just passengers on the Reagan
> train, they were powerless to stop it, or indeed even influence the
> outcome much.
>
Well, now taking your words into consideration, I'm persuaded to stick to my
original contention:  Credit where credit is due: Ronald Reagaon won the Cold
war and brought about the demise of the Soviet Union, though, I'd add the
caveat that Mikhail Gorbachev was a necessary catalyst, as were Lech Walesa
[et. al], Pope John Paul, the catalyst that was required to achieve the
eventual outcome. KM
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