Originally posted by They call me Doctor Doom.:
Actually, the credit for ending the Cold War goes to the Soviets. By adhering to the principles of Marx and Lenin, they ensured that their system would eventually collapse.
I can't believe how many otherwise intelligent people pander to the mythmaking efforts the Conservos have built about Reagan...
But would the Soviets actually have collapsed and when would it happen? China is still following the Communist line and they're probably the biggest comer of this century.
I am the last person to defend Reagan, and I also don't understand his deification among conservatives. But there is a legitimate school of thought that says by investing so heavily in defense, especially the Star Wars system, Reagan triggered the Soviets' collapse because they went broke trying to keep up.
That said, there's a Doonsbury strip that has James Baker explaining that exact theory to Reagan, who then asks "Am I really that smart?" (To which, Baker says, "Well sir, we're still trying to find out.") So whether it was intentional or just a by-product of a heavy defense mindset, it did play a big role in the SU falling apart.
I don't think Nixon played a huge role in bring down the Soviet Union. He certainly considered Breshnev an adversary, but no more than Kennedy or Johnson did (and both of these guys had serious run-ins with the USSR, with the Bay of Pigs, Cuban missiles and Vietnam). Nixon had a rep for being anti-communist, but that was based more on his career in Congress and when he was VP.
