William Blum tackles 'Reagan defeated communism' spin.

[Imperialism Inc.]

Reagan
by William Blum
June 08, 2004

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=5671

It has become conventional wisdom that it was the relentlessly tough anti-communist policies of the Reagan Administration, with its heated-up arms race, that led to the collapse and reformation of the Soviet Union and its satellites. American history books may have already begun to chisel this thesis into marble. The Tories in Great Britain say that Margaret Thatcher and her unflinching policies contributed to the miracle as well. The East Germans were believers too. When Ronald Reagan visited East Berlin, the people there cheered him and thanked him "for his role in liberating the East". Even many leftist analysts, particularly those of a conspiracy bent, are believers.

But this view is not universally held; nor should it be.

Long the leading Soviet expert on the United States, Georgi Arbatov, head of the Moscow-based Institute for the Study of the U.S.A. and Canada, wrote his memoirs in 1992. A Los Angeles Times book review by Robert Scheer summed up a portion of it:

Arbatov understood all too well the failings of Soviet totalitarianism in comparison to the economy and politics of the West. It is clear from this candid and nuanced memoir that the movement for change had been developing steadily inside the highest corridors of power ever since the death of Stalin. Arbatov not only provides considerable evidence for the controversial notion that this change would have come about without foreign pressure, he insists that the U.S. military buildup during the Reagan years actually impeded this development.

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[NewJeffCT]

1. but but but, didn't Reagan single handedly beat the Commies?

How can you destroy that myth?

you must be un American and not love your country.

[wtmusic]

2. Excellent page on decline of Soviet economy

http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch33.htm

Evidence seems to point to the arms race as being a relatively minor contributing factor in the fall of the USSR.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. I'm seeing more of "the other side" this week

as this canonizing drags on. And the surprising thing is that most, no all, but most of the Repubs with their revisionist history on parade can only reply, "Well, yes that's true" when they are called on the carpet about it.

On the local news this morning, they did a piece where they went to an urban area for people's memories of the Reagan years. "They were very different from what we've been hearing."

[ramapo]

4. What about Gorby?

Gorbachev is the one who should get the credit. It was his policies that allowed the Soviet-bloc to dissolve. Glasnost is never mentioned. Without the accomodation of Gorby, the dissenters would've gotten nowhere but the gulag.

It was Gorbachev who had radically different policies than his predecessors. Reagan was the beneficiary of Gorbachev's courage and idealism.

[Snellius]

5. Rebel found a great testimonial on this myth

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1745161&mesg_id=1745161&page=