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In my economics textbook, it said that Reagan was able to end the USSR by putting sanctions in place for it to crumble. Is this true?
Reagan's influence on American policy certain helped.
However, the inevitability of the collapse of the Soviet union was never in doubt. Their commitment to "communism" which looked like totalitarian socialism, was the guarantee it would happen. Reagan's influence may have altered the timing, but the eventual collapse wasn't ever in doubt.
Mr. Reagan had the good fortune to be in office when the unsteady USSR was about to tip over. How much of a 'push' he gave it is not very clear. I think it would have gone down no matter who was sitting in the Oval Office. Imagine if it had happened while Carter was there!
One liberal poster after another chimes in with sweeping claims with nothing to back it up. No link, no quote, no stats....nothing.
Military spending is money well spent. Defense of our country is the most important duty of the Federal Government, and no expense should be spared in providing us with the most advanced weapons and equipment that money and technology can buy.
Unfortunately this administration, and the Democrat Party in general, think that our enemies can be dealt with through negotiations (peace talks). But evil people only respect military strength. Right now, the U.S. is seen as weak, thanks to Obama and his policies. Our enemies are laughing at him. Putin is doing what he wants, and so are the Muslim savages that seek to destroy all of Western civilization.
But, conservatives do stand for less government spending on the wasteful and ineffective social programs, social engineering, and "investment" (as they like to call it) in useless "green" projects, and other programs that the federal government has no business being involved in.
Translation: Conservatives stand for less government spending on fellow Americans, and more for the bloated military industrial complex. Another reason why they remain the biggest threat to the prosperity of America.
Translation: Conservatives stand for less government spending on fellow Americans, and more for the bloated military industrial complex. Another reason why they remain the biggest threat to the prosperity of America.
Right-wing conservatism = the real evil empire
Not only that, but government deficits are not always bad.
No, Reagan did not end the USSR. The USSR ended the USSR. Reagan just happened to be in office at the same time. His "Star Wars" program would've destabilized the world by ending Mutually Assured Destruction.
SDI, or Star Wars, was an interesting saga. It started when Reagan watched an interview of physicist Edward Teller by WF Buckley in August 1982. Reagan invited Teller to the WH to talk. By March 1983 Reagan was announcing SDI in a speech. Many around him tried to talk him out of it, including the JCS, Sec'y of State Shultz, Robert McFarlane (later a key figure in Iran Contra) and many others. David Stockman was opposed on fiscal grounds. And there was withering opposition from the left, academia, and the media.
Even Margaret Thatcher hated the idea. She later reversed, saying "Looking back, it is now clear to me that Ronald Reagan's original decision on SDI was the single most important of his presidency."
The Russians agreed. Gorby put on a massive push to get Reagan to drop SDI at Geneva talks in 1985. Robert Gates, future SecDef, said "It wasn't SDI per se that frightened Soviet leaders...it was the idea of SDI and all that it represented that frightened them." Alexander Bessmertnykh, Gorby's foreign minister, later admitted "SDI frightened us very much..."
BTW all this comes from the excellent book The Age of Reaganby Steven Hayward and is all footnoted therein.
From listening to Republicans and anti-communists over the decades I know two things for sure about the collapse of the Soviet Union:
1. Communism is a fatally flawed and inherently unstable system, and every communist regime is fated to collapse of its own weight.
2. The Soviet Union was a powerful and nearly invincible foe, and it could only be defeated by the superhuman efforts of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the greatest President ever to serve this Republic.
In my economics textbook, it said that Reagan was able to end the USSR by putting sanctions in place for it to crumble. Is this true?
Um, no. That's a fantastical claim made by a nutter not supported by any evidence. I'd throw that book away. Is it a college textbook? Get your money back, and find another professor who doesn't use a book like that.
Many of the "programs" Reagan threw money had never went into service and some such as Starwars were not even possible at the time so do not speak of conservatives not spending money wastefully the man setup the spending spree that has gone on since he left office and left us on the path the deeper and deeper debt.
Public debt was 35% of GDP and he essentially took over an economy that was as bad if not worse than what Obama got. Obama's deficits made Reagan's look like small change compared to GDP. Yet you'll no doubt not say one word about Obama's deficits.
One liberal poster after another chimes in with sweeping claims with nothing to back it up. No link, no quote, no stats....nothing.
It's the same thing over and over and over and over... You can give them links but it matters not. Factual information isn't their goal in posting.
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