Gorbachev “Won” Cold War for World, NOT Reagan for US w Star War Fantasies

IHT piece confirms view Cold War won by Gorbachev for whole world, not Reagan Star Wars fantasies.

IHT piece confirms view Cold War won by Gorbachev for whole world, not Reagan Star Wars fantasies.

IHT piece confirms view Cold War won by Gorbachev for whole world, not Reagan Star Wars fantasies.

IHT piece confirms view Cold War won by Gorbachev for whole world, not Reagan Star Wars fantasies.

For years, we have been sarcastically critical of the ludicrous US view – held as much by ill-informed Dems as “rapturous” RPBs – that Reagan’s Star Wars fantasies so scared the Soviets that it “forced” them to try to keep up in an effort that eventually bankrupted them & caused their collapse.

Instead, we argued, it was Gorbachev’s refusal in 1989 to follow the ignominious precedents of his predecessors and intervene military when subject Eastern Bloc countries protested, almost always peacefully, against Soviet domination of their countries.

This piece by Oxford professor Archie Brown encapsulates the view we’ve been stating for years:

[quote]

The most momentous change of Soviet foreign policy was the reversal of the Brezhnev doctrine, whereby the Soviet Union had arrogated to itself the right to intervene in any Warsaw Pact country in which Communist power appeared to be threatened.

In the summer of 1988 and at the United Nations in December of the same year, Mr. Gorbachev declared that the people of every country had the right to decide for themselves in what kind of system they wished to live. The huge implications for Eastern Europe, and the fact that Mr. Gorbachev meant what he said, were demonstrated in the course of 1989.

[/quote]

Thanks, Archie, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/opinion/11iht-edbrown.html