Thank you, Mr Reagan

[selenite0]

I'm grateful to Reagan for winning the Cold War. We're currently terrified that our current enemy might get their hands on an arsenal less than 0.1% of what the Soviets had pointed at us in 80s. I don't think it would've ended so well if Reagan hadn't kept the pressure on them. Either the USSR would've been able to expand and grab the resources it needed to keep going, or it would've thought a war might give it those resources and launched the WWIII we we'd prepared for. Forcing them to give up without launching an all-out offensive was a great accomplishment and Reagan deserves a lot of credit for standing firm when many people thought the confrontation would go on forever.

But some of the eulogies describe this as winning "without firing a shot". Hardly. The Cold War had a lot of fighting mostly proxy fights between our allies and theirs. 95,000 Americans died fighting Soviet allies in Korea and Vietnam. Over a hundred Americans were killed by the Soviets in getting crucial reconnaissance data, and that's only counting those in uniform. More proxy wars were fought in Latin America and the Middle East. Reagan's greatest weapon against the Soviets was using the Afghan war to bleed and exhaust them. Millions died in the Cold War--let's not forget them.

Comments

Re: Reagan

[jfsnyder.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure you can add my father-in-law to the list of folks killed by the Cold War. Dave's family lived in Prague in the late 60's. During that time the Soviets bombarded the US embassy (where they lived) with microwaves. No one has *said* this caused his current problems, but given that no one seems to know exactly what caused his problems...my money is on the Cold War.

The scary part...

[(Anonymous)]

...is that our current enemy is infinitely more likely to use that 0.1% than the Soviet were to use their 100% on us.

Reagan's administration is a mixed bag, with both pros and cons. There were many decisions that were the right decisions to make at the time that we're now having to clean up. Two cases in point:

1) Supporting Saddam in the 80's, with weapons, billions of dollars, and intelligence, and encouraging his invasion of Iran. Yes, Saddam was an evil tyrant, and we knew he was an evil tyrant, but Iran was INFINITELY more frigtening, and radical Islam threatened to spread from Iran like Communism did in the 40s and 50s. Iraq kept Iran in check. Useful at the time. By the end of the 80's Saddam was no longer a needed tool.

2) The CIA supporting operations in Afghanistan. Yes, we trained what would eventually have become Al Qaida - but who could possibly predicted them going isane against us over a decade later? A collapse of the Soviet system was inevitable, but their losses in Afghanistan likely accerlated it. (Alas, it appears Iraq will bleed and exhaust us in the same way for years to come.)

The Reagan administration has gotten a lot of retroactive flack for those decisions, but they were the right ones to make at the time.

Now, the whole business of overthrowing South American democracies and training South American death squads in torture techniques - well, that's a bit of the Reagan years I think we could have done without.

Oh, and the massive deficits. Probably could have done without those.

"Reagan proved deficits don't matter." - Dick Cheney

Reagan gets a lot of flack for having ignored the AIDS crisis - but then I'm not sure I would really want to know what Reagan's solution to the AIDS crisis might have been.

Ultimately, Reagan's legacy is that he managed to walk a tightrope on the brink of major war, but knew to stay on the right side. He knew exactly how far he could push. I wish our current administration could show even a glimmer of the same level of discipline and self-control.

- A