"It is a consensus view, except for the extreme Left, that Reagan ended the Cold War. "
There were a lot of factors. And, outside of the wingnut blogs, it isn't a consensus that only Reagan could have done it. In fact, the preponderance of the evidence is that the USSR was headed for the wall pretty early in the Reagan administration. Even before, what with Poland and the other Eastern Bloc trying to wiggle out.
"But the argument that the Soviet Union would, somehow, have collapsed without Reagan's leadership is bullshit."
Talk about bullshit. You are pretty ignorant of the events that went on if you think that the USSR would have held together after the changes that Gorbachev tried to make. By the early 1980s, the costs of hold the Eastern Bloc had gotten extremely high. The standard of living in the DDR was higher than in Moscow because of the subsidies intended to keep them in the alliance. Perestroika and glasnost loosened the rigid control on the media and the Russians started to learn what was really going on. That is when the stories about the alcoholism and declining standard of living started to hit the West, along with in the USSR. Chernobyl didn't help, the attempted coverup damaged government credibility big time. After that, it was really only a question of when and how many would die. As it turned out, not many died. Which was a bit of a surprise.
Sure, Reagan put pressure on them. But there were a lot more factors than you are pretending there was. |
