"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
news



First of all, Reagan didn't defeat the USSR. Instead, he severely
weakened
our relationship with our European allies, and that was the real key to
the
events that followed. His endless rhetoric, his decision to place even
more
nuclear weapons in Europe, his attack on Libya, his rhetorical threats
towards France following that attack on Libia, and a number of other
questionable actions, convinced many in Europe the Russians were not all
that bad in comparison. As a result, it was the efforts by European
leaders
to reach out to the Russians, such as decisions by France and Germany to
help Russia build an oil pipeline to Europe and England's decision to
increase trade with Russia, that truly caused Russian leaders to rethink
their positions.

As others have pointed out, there were certainly other factors
influencing
Russia's decision (declining economy. political unrest, and so on), but
these alone would not have, and had not in the past, caused Russia to
change. The key ingredient, missing in the past, was a shift in European
thinking. And that shift was caused by a widespread rejection of Reagan's
war mongering attitudes - attitudes that were a throw-back to the early
days
of the cold war and, like Reagan himself, very much out of place in the
world at that time.

Stewart


Surely you don't want to confuse the average right wing , slightly fascistic
American with an intelligent evaluation of what really happened, especially
if it happened out side the borders of the US and Hollywood TV

Pete