Thank you, Mr Reagan
Jun. 11th, 2004 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenite0I'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.
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.
