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To: Zoltan! who wrote (1881)	11/19/1999 12:47:00 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3246

There is certainly disagreement about scholars as to the assessment of causes of the fall of communism. A game of Dueling Bibliographies doesn't seem too sensible. There is much more archival material yet to come from Russia that will decrease the need for premature speculative judgments. Incidentally, as a point of mild interest, I seem to remember that Brian Crozier, in his earlier career, was identified as a CIA asset. This is the same Brian Crozier, isn't it? And you keep reminding us of something we already know, which is that Reagan has his academic fans, a lot of them at the Hoover Institution.

To: Zoltan! who wrote (1881)	11/19/1999 3:19:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3246

E is right about Brian Crozier's "intelligence activites," as you no doubt know, Zoltan. A quick search turned up all sorts of exposes, including the following: copi.com And, whether he was a spook or not, the fact is that Crozier has been associated with right-wing (meant descriptively, not pejoratively) causes for years. And it is not surprising that Richard Pipes praises his book (and his interpretation), since Pipes was Director of East European and Soviet Affairs in the National Security Council during the first two years of the Reagan administration. More than that: he was, as I recall, even more gung-ho than Reagan himself to bring down the Evil Empire. None of this means that Crozier's explanation is necessarily wrong. Even partisans can be right. But the above does suggest that Crozier was a partisan of Reagan's (and of the Pipes-Reagan Soviet policy long before he decided to write a book about the latter. So I don't know about his ability to be objective on this one...