"I've also heard several people deny that Reagan won us the Cold War. Or they grudgingly admit that he did only to point out that the USSR would've collapsed anyway. "
That wasn't the liberal line at the time... they were busy insisting that the USSR was strong and here-to-stay and we needed to accommodate them instead of antagonize them.
Long quote from same: "In retrospect, Reagan’s point that the Soviet economy was on life support seems obvious to the point of banality. In fact, that’s one of the arguments his critics use against him: that the Soviet economy would have imploded anyway, even without Reagan’s defense buildup. But that’s not the way foreign policy intellectuals saw it in 1982.
"'It is a vulgar mistake to think that most people in Eastern Europe are miserable,' declared economist Lester Thurow, adding that the Soviet Union was 'a country whose economic achievements bear comparison with those of the United States." (I wonder if Thurow had ever flown on a Soviet airliner?) John Kenneth Galbraith went further, insisting that in many respects the Soviet economy was superior to ours: 'In contrast to the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.'
"Arthur Schlesinger, just back from a trip to Moscow in 1982, said Reagan was delusional. 'I found more goods in the shops, more food in the markets, more cars on the street -- more of almost everything,' he said, adding his contempt for 'those in the U.S. who think the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse, ready with one small push to go over the brink.'"
(end quote)
I personally remember the derision handed down by liberals like NPR's Daniel Shorr when Reagan stood before the Brandenburg gate and urged Gorbachev to tear down the wall. What a dinosaur, they said, too stupid to realize that history had already spoken and communism was a durable reality that wiser heads had learned to accept.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2004-06-10 02:01 pm (UTC)That wasn't the liberal line at the time... they were busy insisting that the USSR was strong and here-to-stay and we needed to accommodate them instead of antagonize them.
Nice reminder in this review:
http://www.reason.com/0311/cr.gg.the.shtml
Long quote from same: "In retrospect, Reagan’s point that the Soviet economy was on life support seems obvious to the point of banality. In fact, that’s one of the arguments his critics use against him: that the Soviet economy would have imploded anyway, even without Reagan’s defense buildup. But that’s not the way foreign policy intellectuals saw it in 1982.
"'It is a vulgar mistake to think that most people in Eastern Europe are miserable,' declared economist Lester Thurow, adding that the Soviet Union was 'a country whose economic achievements bear comparison with those of the United States." (I wonder if Thurow had ever flown on a Soviet airliner?) John Kenneth Galbraith went further, insisting that in many respects the Soviet economy was superior to ours: 'In contrast to the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.'
"Arthur Schlesinger, just back from a trip to Moscow in 1982, said Reagan was delusional. 'I found more goods in the shops, more food in the markets, more cars on the street -- more of almost everything,' he said, adding his contempt for 'those in the U.S. who think the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse, ready with one small push to go over the brink.'"
(end quote)
I personally remember the derision handed down by liberals like NPR's Daniel Shorr when Reagan stood before the Brandenburg gate and urged Gorbachev to tear down the wall. What a dinosaur, they said, too stupid to realize that history had already spoken and communism was a durable reality that wiser heads had learned to accept.