Amaranth Iowa
06/01/18 10:15 pm
They’re not, duh! The only people killed in the cold war were spies. The USA won without having to deploy a single solider because the USSR sucked so hard that it just fell apart on it’s own.
otto Olean, NY
05/30/18 12:57 am
Both. USSR was rife with incompetence. Reagan was smart and shrewd enough to know that. Then he used our intelligence to discover the specific incompetencies and then he used policy, diplomacy and military to exploit the incompetencies.
Obama could not do the same with ISIS or Iran because he was too concerned with their feelings and political correctness. Plus, as opposed to Reagan, he just didn’t believe that America is all that special.
DoctorWasdarb Marxist Leninist Maoist
05/29/18 11:51 am
I think the question is poorly asked. One the one hand, the power and expansion of the US definitely helped them. In fact, I don't think the Cold War is really worth talking about as far as epochal definitions are concerned. There was nothing to win or lose.
If we want to ask why the USSR was dismantled, I attribute it more to internal contradictions than external pressure.
phalnx Ohio
05/29/18 11:04 am
The Soviets were never our competitors in anything but the military. They only lasted as long as they did because their people were brainwashed into accepting abject poverty as normal. Once enough Western culture crept in, it was only a matter of time.
This is also why Kim Jung Un's days are numbered...too many people are starting to realize that it's a lot better out here.
Cherepaxa Thirdworld and firstworld
05/29/18 8:02 am
Neither. It would surprise most Americans to learn that the vote to keep the USSR actually won. The coup had a different idea, however.
Most people in ex-Soviet states actually *miss* the Federation.
The problem wasn't an inherent failure of general communist theory (China for instance is doing great), nor a success of capitalism. It was that the people failed to enforce their democracy outside of legal means when the legal means failed them.
John1 Florida
05/29/18 5:25 am
Both...what really broke the USSR was their inability to compete with the United States. Classic example of communism vs capitalism. One works, the other doesn't.
mark4
05/29/18 4:04 am
Capitalism works.
Communism doesn’t.
History hasn’t just spoken but has yelled it loud and clear.
NemoDude Dead, at this point
05/29/18 3:50 am
Anyone who thinks we were somehow a divine force of good on that war needs to look at My Lai, Iran-Contras, and all of the other terrible things we did. We won because the Soviets never could have lasted from the start.
dves
05/29/18 3:26 am
So far, 70% of Democrats said the Russians sucked. They sucked because of their economy which sucked because of their communist ideology. This is irony
Dedmon California
05/28/18 8:55 pm
The fact is communism doesn't work and the Soviets lost because of it. They were resourceful throughout the war and the rivalry pushed us into space exploration; however, the inability of communism (not socialism all together, mind you) to provide efficient means by which to produce goods forced them into suppressive policies that, later during its history, forced it to basically turn to freer public and economic policies. The U.S. took measures to mitigate Soviet influence and block its growth, but ultimately, as has been said the very thing they fought for did them in.
RussianThunder Russia and USA
05/28/18 8:01 pm
Perestroika
Glasnost
Chernobyl
Protests (the people had had enough)
Brezhnev spending surplus money on weapons instead of the people
A younger Soviet leader with newer ideas
An outdated elderly out of touch politburo
A strong charismatic American President
Another American president who used to run the CIA
A strong British Prime Minister
There are more but those are the main ones
stinomite
05/28/18 7:51 pm
Think it’s a little of both. A fully centrally planned economy like they had is inherently incompetent and doomed to fail. However, our capitalist economy kept us strong and well positioned to wait out the U.S.S.R. collapse. I think Reagan’s strong leadership helped shut down any hope for the Soviets, which helped push forward the inevitable.
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