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In my opinion, Reagan caused the collapse of the Soviet Union in several ways. By keeping the spotlight on the human rights situation and calling the "Evil Empire" what it truly was, the Soviets were forced by the exposure and the advent of modern technologies such as the internet, fax machines, etc. to gradually loosen up and open up the society to a point where it could not be stopped. Secondly, the Soviet economy could not keep up with our economy. The arms buildup the Reagan administration began forced to Soviets to undergo a similar build up and one they could not afford. After all, the Soviet Union was really just a third world country with nuclear weapons. The build up exacerbated the economic situation in the Soviet Union to the point of collapse triggering even more reform. Finally, the Soviets through their proxies were confronted and successfully turned back in El Salvador, Libya, Angola, etc. Soviet weapons were shown to be ineffective and the Soviet "tiger" was shown to be largely a paper tiger. This caused a huge loss of face with Soviet allies. For all these reasons, calculated polices by Reagan and the advent of technology improving information flow, Reagan, IMO, is largely responsible for the collapse of the Soviet empire. JLA |
