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Urban Ranger
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Apolyton Duke of Off-Topic
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Reagan Didn't End the Cold War
quote:
Arbatov understood all too well the failings of Soviet totalitarianism in comparison to the economy and politics of the West. It is clear from this candid and nuanced memoir that the movement for change had been developing steadily inside the highest corridors of power ever since the death of Stalin. Arbatov not only provides considerable evidence for the controversial notion that this change would have come about without foreign pressure, he insists that the U.S. military buildup during the Reagan years actually impeded this development.
George F. Kennan agrees. The former US ambassador to the Soviet Union, and father of the theory of "containment" of the same country, asserts that "the suggestion that any United States administration had the power to influence decisively the course of a tremendous domestic political upheaval in another great country on another side of the globe is simply childish." He contends that the extreme militarization of American policy strengthened hard-liners in the Soviet Union. "Thus the general effect of Cold War extremism was to delay rather than hasten the great change that overtook the Soviet Union."
Though the arms-race spending undoubtedly damaged the fabric of the Soviet civilian economy and society even more than it did in the United States, this had been going on for 40 years by the time Mikhail Gorbachev came to power without the slightest hint of impending doom. Gorbachev's close adviser, Aleksandr Yakovlev, when asked whether the Reagan administration's higher military spending, combined with its "Evil Empire" rhetoric, forced the Soviet Union into a more conciliatory position, responded:
It played no role. None. I can tell you that with the fullest responsibility. Gorbachev and I were ready for changes in our policy regardless of whether the American president was Reagan, or Kennedy, or someone even more liberal. It was clear that our military spending was enormous and we had to reduce it. |
[emphasis my own]
Ah. Quote wars. I love it. 
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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:36
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quote:
Originally posted by GePap
The Logjam Reagan broke, as far as I am concerned, was not in his first term, the term in which the funded an arms race and used the more beligerant tone and so forth, what the Republicans laud him on and say won the cold war (given their chickenhawk mentality)- It was his second term, when Gorbachev was in power-Reagan, for all his Evil Empire talk was willing to work with Gorbachev, and also wanted to back down from the nuclear war threat-hence signing such a massive cut in nuclear weapons. He enaged Gorbachev and was a partner in the last 3 years of his tenure. It was in doing that he helped Gorbachev.
If Ronnie deserves any credit on ending the CW, it is for his optimistic diplomacy after 1985 and his sunny notion that the nuclear impase could end, not for his masive military spending and criminal acts in his firt term. |
You missed the point.
There is a total mismatch between what he said in that interview, and what Counterpunch said he said in it's article. No, I am not saying Counterpunch quoted that interview, I'm saying that what it quoted in it's article -- and appears nowhere else -- does not match other things the man has said.
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Drake Tungsten
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Knee deep in alien womyn...
Oct 2001
time: 14:36
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What about intermediate-range ballistic missiles?
Or the navy?
Or some other parts of the $1.5 trillion defense spending increase under Reagan that I'm forgetting about?
Last edited by Drake Tungsten on 09-06-2004 at 21:27
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Cruddy
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Dear Ronnie,
Thanks for selling us the Stingers and the niner Limas when you weren't supposed to. They helped win us the war, and your arms manufacturers can rest assured they worked.
Best wishes for Nancy
Mags "PukkaUp" Thatch
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09-06-2004 11:21
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