OK, if Gorbachev was so unimportant, imagine Ligachev in his spot instead. Do you really see the same things happening?
As for external security, Kaplan's point is that Gorbachev was emboldened to undertake reforms precisely because he figured that Reagan wasn't going to attack the USSR. If he didn't have that assurance, it would have been safer to keep with the Brezhnev program of maintaining the current system at all costs.
With all due respect to Lech Walesa, what is his opinion supposed to prove? Is it a big surprise that Eastern Europeans were more inspired by Reagan than by Gorbachev? You might as well credit Frank Zappa for the fall of the Czech Communists.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2004-06-11 02:04 pm (UTC)As for external security, Kaplan's point is that Gorbachev was emboldened to undertake reforms precisely because he figured that Reagan wasn't going to attack the USSR. If he didn't have that assurance, it would have been safer to keep with the Brezhnev program of maintaining the current system at all costs.
With all due respect to Lech Walesa, what is his opinion supposed to prove? Is it a big surprise that Eastern Europeans were more inspired by Reagan than by Gorbachev? You might as well credit Frank Zappa for the fall of the Czech Communists.