Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
I've took all I can stands, and I can't stands no more:
http://www.publicpurpose.com/lib-gorb911225.htm
Again, this is what Gorby admitted to his people- as Ty puts it- "this took me 2 minutes on Google"
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Translation from Russian to English is a science, not an art, but I think you can find a version of that speech on the National Review's web site where Gorbachev blames Reagan personally, and observes that Marxism/Leninism would have prevailed everywhere if only the American voters had re-elected Jimmy Carter to continue the arms build-up he started.
There's no doubt that the arms race was a crushing burden for the Soviet economy, which was devoting an extraordinary propotion of its GNP on military spending. The question is whether what Reagan did on the margin made much incremental difference. IMHO, the collapse of the Soviet Union can be explained much like de Tocqueville explained the French Revolution -- things were shitty for a long time, but once there were a few steps towards reform, the whole thing fell apart because a rotten system could not keep pace with rising expectations for change. Gorbachev did not come to power to preside over the collapse of the Soviet Union, but what he started got away from him.
eta: Good job on finding the speech you were thinking of, but no reasonable person could read that speech and come away believing that Gorbachev thinks Reagan was the difference in the Cold War.
