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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (363794)	12/20/2007 4:07:00 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573214

The Soviet Union would have ended if Reagan hadn't existed and would have ended 15 yers earlier if the Kennedys hadn't been murdered. True, Reagan pressured them, as did Europe, the Vatican, Jews, peace groups, and Reagan was a much better diplomat that Bush-Cheney, but the most ferocious pressure came from within. I don't even know how you can begin to compare Reagan's role with Gorbachev and Lech Valesa who physically risked their lives to make changes. Or what about West Germany which offered to pay for East Germany and take it off the Soviet's hands when its economy was crumbling? That was huge. All Reagan did was make a bunch of speeches and threaten to build his imaginary Star Wars. That may have made some difference but it was not the deciding factor. Also the crumbling of the USSR began before Reagan was even in power. Actually Charlie Wilson and Bin laden probably had more to do with the Soviet Union crumbling. The beating they took in Afghanistan really shattered them for some reason. That was during the Carter years. I remember. I knew Charlie Wilson.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (363794)	12/20/2007 11:56:17 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1573214

Reagan challenged the Soviet Union on every front. The moral - labeling it an evil empire, calling on Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall, telling the world that communism would soon be sent to the ash heap of history . The economic - conspiring with SA to keep oil prices down during the 1980's, even though this hurt American oil producers hard too. The military - building up our conventional forces (including a buildup to a 500 ship navy, shifted to an aggressive posture), driving to develop new unconventional weapons (SDI), deploying Pershing II missiles to Europe to counter Russian missiles aimed at Europe. So did every president from Truman on up......Reagan was hardly alone. The Soviet Union was brought down by Afghanistan, poor economic mgmt, and trying to maintain its empire in Eastern Europe.