North Korea 'to halt nuclear testing'

[Major Nikon]

13. Raygun actually lengthened the cold war with his hard line rhetoric

Raygun's "evil empire" bullshit rhetoric gave fuel to the hard liners fire in the USSR which extended the cold war. The Soviets were swirling the drain and the US knew this in the early 70's. That's why Carter made no efforts to build up our military. Carter knew this because the CIA told him. However, Bush I planted Neocons in the CIA (called Team B) to come up with an alternate assessment of Soviet intentions and the result was predictably that the Soviets were as strong as ever and planning a first strike strategy. Almost everything Team B came up with was later proved to be false, yet on that false assessment Raygun tripled the federal debt building up our military for no good reason. Hearing Raygun's rhetoric and seeing the buildup of US forces gave the hard liners in the USSR what they needed to keep the failing Soviet system intact for several more years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_b