"How Reagan won the Cold War" Topic

link

review of The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink
by William Inboden
Dutton, 608 pp., $35 USD

The Clear-headed Ronald Reagan

To be sure, Inboden trods familiar ground of Reagan's foreign policy, but both the lengthening of time that is opening up more documents and evidence, along with new perspectives that current conditions inspire, enable Inboden to fill in some fresh details to key episodes, emphasize parts of Reagan's strategy and actions that have eluded other authors, and reach new conclusions about several contested aspects of the story. Above all, The Peacemaker provides a case study of how an administration, despite its mistakes, internal disputes, and confusion, can nonetheless be consistently purposive and competent—a welcome reminder just now of the capacities of genuine leaders.

Inboden goes one step further than most previous accounts of Reagan's grand strategy for the Cold War, which highlight his famous private comment before becoming president that his idea of the Cold War was "we win, they lose." But what did that mean in practical and political terms? Inboden's striking central argument: Reagan consciously sought the negotiated surrender of the Soviet Union (his italics). This did not mean a military defeat in armed conflict; in fact, that is the outcome Reagan most wished to avoid for obvious reasons. Neither did he want to humiliate the Soviet Union. Inboden makes clear that "though Reagan wanted to bring the Soviet Union to a negotiated surrender, he did not seek a public surrender ceremony." In another passage late in the story, after many pieces of Reagan's grand strategy were in motion and bearing fruit, Inboden's view might be described as Reagan issuing a "do not resuscitate" order to a terminal patient if not attempting euthanasia (Inboden's actual words are that Reagan wanted "to bring Soviet communism to a peaceful death").

Thanks for sharing! His policies pressured the Soviets on every front, including using energy as a weapon to deny the USSR oil and natural gas revenue by boosting US and OPEC production.

Imagine that…increasing US supplies to deprive Russia, I mean, the USSR, of revenue from its primary export product.

In short, he stressed them into collapse, while the prior POTUS and his top domestic opponents preferred keeping the USSR on life support.

Two things that helped also.

Putting the Pershing II"s in Germany. This freaked the Soviets out as these weapons were uncannily accurate and almost impossible to stop upon launch.

The SDI program, which ballyhooed by a lot of people, (including Carl Sagan), has been proven to be successful and practical, made the Soviets realize that they simply did not have the technology nor the money to keep pouring into so many different programs to "keep up" with the US.

Economic warfare works, and he defeated them both economically, and military by boosting our military spending and strategic military programs substantially.

The Soviets simply couldn't keep up.

we could do with him now

Plus 100, wardog.

We need someone to see China as the new "evil empire" and say so.

Can't add to what everyone else has said. Reagan ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Are all our communist apologist (AKA useful idiots) off this weekend?

I'll come the closest by saying Reagan did not do it alone. We needed both Pope John Paul and Margaret Thatcher to bring it down.

Even then the Germans were being lured by the siren song of cheap Russian natural gas…until the CIA under Reagan sabotaged the Trans-Siberian pipeline.

Thomas Reed, senior US national security official, claims in his book "At The Abyss" that the United States allowed the USSR to steal pipeline control software from a Canadian company. This software included a Trojan Horse that caused a major explosion of the Trans-Siberian gas pipeline in June, 1982. The Trojan ran during a pressure test on the pipeline but doubled the usual pressure, causing the explosion.

link

Hmm…somehow I think the Soviet ideology, bureaucracy, and internal corruption also played a role in their collapse. One could say that Reagan provided the puff of air that brought down the Soviet house of cards.

The USA and the West keep Russian Communism alive from the 1930s until almost the end. We sold them wheat when they were starving due to their agricultural policies. We saved them from the Nazis. We loaned them money. American and Western traitors gave them atomic secrets. We downplayed their role in both the Korean War and Vietnam Wars.

The Soviet Union had a GNP about equal to 1/2 of our defense budget. By raising our defense spending the Soviets could not keep pace, they would have had to spend 100% of their budget on defense. They were forced to give up or collapse economically or attack. They knew attack would be suicide.

Too often we gave the Soviets the benefit of the doubt. If we are just nice to them they will be nice to us. No, when we were nice to them they took it as weakness and pushed us further.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

Reagan recognized and exploited the Soviet weaknesses.

"I'll come the closest by saying Reagan did not do it alone. We needed both Pope John Paul and Margaret Thatcher to bring it down."

Kohl, Mulrooney, and others….

Dn Jackson. Agreed. But it takes a "leader" and organizer to garner that support and Reagan did fill that role well.

Yes, Thatcher and John Paul were essential, as was the Polish labor leader. Throw in the US AFL-CIO, who were staunchly anti-Communist. But Reagan was the author of the grand strategy, which is a president's role and responsibility. He had the vision and drew people and resources together to carry it out.

+1 doc mcb

Reagan developed a joint strategy in Poland with the Pope, to support Solidarity. The CIA provided money and technical help, the Church provided accurate intelligence and moral clout, and the AFL-CIO sent Polish-American union organizers. It was a potent and effective combination.

doc,
IIRC there was a Polish Catholic Priest that was performing an outside Mass with a large attendance which was against the Communist rules. The KGB guy in charge ordered the Polish Army unit to go there and disperse the crowd. When the Polish soldiers go there they joined the crowd, put down their weapons, took off their helmets, and then took Communion with everyone else. When the report of the incident got back to the KGB commander he said at that point he knew it was over for the Russians in Poland.

The will of the people with faith in their cause and freedom in their hearts can defeat any weapon or tyranny. Based on what happens in China maybe there will be the same result. But it will happen sooner or later.

Wolfhag

Wolfhag, I agree, and may it come soon!

I don't think Putin got the memo about losing the Cold War. You can't declare victory if the other side continues to fight.

What Reagan did was excellent. However, Socialism and Communism are ideologies, you need to defeat them in the minds of the people. Socialism is just Communist-Lite and a transition period over to more government control, or so Lenin claimed.

The Catholic Church stood against Communism during the Cold War but today the Pope is a self-proclaimed Marxist as are many Priests and Bishops pushing the Progressive agenda. Many other Christian sects have embraced the Socialist and Progressive agenda. Why?

The US stood against Communism during the Cold War but today Marxist and Socialist political movements seem to be stronger than in the last 100 years with many elected officials across the country claiming to be Socialist or supporting Socialist ideals and condoning unconstitutional actions.

The education institutes are staffed with outright or leaning Socialist professors and opposing voices are silenced, sometimes with violence. Free Speech is dying on American campuses. Why? What is it they are afraid of?

The Communist main tool is propaganda. If you examine the educational system in the US from preschool to postgraduate it's clear that they are winning the propaganda war not to mention mass media and the help of tech monopolies they helped establish. They use victimization, hate, fear, and greed to turn well-meaning and intelligent people into "Useful Idiots" who will even hate their own families after just a semister away from home.

A straight Democracy without laws, rules, God-given Rights, and a judicial system to keep the government in check can become the tyrannical rule of the majority over the minority who will basically have no Rights, especially no 1st or 2nd Amendment freedoms. Sound familiar? The US is a Constitutional Republic and not a Democracy as many people think. Why?

The Socialist calls to do away with the Electoral College, unlimited illegal immigration (new Socialist voters), urging the President to use Executive Orders to make new laws and not enforce the ones Congress passed (this is Unconstitutional), are all tactics being used to accomplish their goal as they've said the ends justify the means. These are all unlawful and a perversion of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Why?

A powerful and centralized government is not Progressive, it is Regressive because it limits the State's Rights, the people's freedom of choice, and personal Rights and steals the fruits of their labor under the false promise of an equal and utopian society.

In the last 50 years, the US has become more and more Socialist and the result is the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Corporate and foreign influences and money are now more powerful than the people. Why?

The US is founded on the idea of a decentralized government that allows the people and States to rule themselves. The history of Socialism, Marxism, and Communism is about government control and tyranny. In 1776 the Colonists fought back against tyranny, today half of the US population unknowingly supports and votes for it.

Like the Communists have said, it's not who votes it's who counts the votes.

Communist and Socialist controlled governments in the last 100 years have killed hundreds of millions of their own people and tortured and imprisoned millions more. The Nazis were Socialists too and despised Capitalism. I don't understand how you can embrace Socialism but hate Nazis whose efforts at mass murder pale to other Marist and Socialist/Communist movements.

How and why did we get to the point where Communism and Socialism have made more gains in the US AFTER the Cold War? How and why did they infiltrate Western religion, education, and government institutions? I think Yuri can explain this best: YouTube link

A shorter version: YouTube link

The Soviets never intended to go to war to defeat the US, it was more effective and easier to do it from the inside with the KGB by creating a nation of "Useful Idiots."

Wolfhag

Wolfhag, you pretty much answered your own questions.

I would add: 1) the promise of bread and circuses, ie free money, "supposedly taken from the evil oppressors" 2) you have no responsibility for your own failures, it is always someone else's fault ie, the supposed oppressors.

"Give us control and we will take care of you".