Why Reagan did not end the Cold War.

[edhopper]

The RWs say that his increase in military spending here, especially Star Wars, forced the Soviets to overspend and therefore bring them down economically.
The facts don't show that Soviet Military spending rose significantly in the 80's.

http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/Politics/fitzgerald.html

It is more likely that Gorbachev's policies lead to a more open society that the Soviet system could not control.

Will we see anyone in the media challenge this myth.

[Nlighten1]

1. The fall of communism was predicted in the 70's

I wish I still have the link to this story. There were some economists that predicted the USSR could not last given their economic model.

It was just a matter of time not a matter of Reagan.

Welcome to DU!

[LTR]

2. Why Communism faded

1. Collapsed under the weight of it's own bureacracy.

2. Gorbachev

[truizm]

3. Reagan prolonged the inevitable collapse of the SU by

giving them a war time economy.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. The fall of communism began with the formation of the CIA in 1946...

...which included the Gehlen Org in 1948:

The Gehlen Org
<http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/GehlenOrg_CIAHits.html>

Small wonder that the Cold War was fueled primarily from "information" gathered by an organization bent on revenge against the old USSR.

Every president since Truman participated in the Arms Race portion of the Cold War, an economic race that we knew the Soviets could never win. It was just a matter of time, and Reagan just happened to be president when the USSR collapsed.

[OpSomBlood]

5. Reagan gets credit for singlehandedly winning the Cold War...

...yet the economic boom and record surpluses (used to pay off some of Reagan's debt) of the 1990's was in no way Clinton's doing.

Damn liberal media.

[primavera]

6. But, in fairness, he did help keep it going

Gorbachev had been moving towards his glasnost' and perestroika policies - in more modest forms - for years before Reagan came along; indeed, it was while Carter was president that we first began to see signs of Gorbachev's reformist aspirations. The fallacy of the "realist" contention that Gorbachev was responding to pressure from Reagan's souped-up military budget is exposed by the fact that Gorbachev got started on a reformist track - for domestic reasons of legitimacy - long before Reagan came along and took credit for it. In fairness, though, Reagan did provide lots of ammunition to the conservative Soviet military establishment, thus making it much, much, much harder for Gorbachev to get reforms passed. So, when you say "Reagan ended the Cold War," you really mean "Reagan did his utmost to keep the Cold War going as long as possible," well then, yes, I guess I'd have to agree.