Right.The fact that you couldn't afford to keep up with the U.S., militarily, had nothing to do with it, eh?At a meeting with foreign reporters this week, Gorbachev blamed the United States for losing a chance to build a safer and more stable world following the Soviet demise.
"Ending the Cold War was given as a gift" to the United States. . . .
The Associated Press, of course, refuses to credit Ronald Reagan, the man who make Mikhail cry "uncle" -- describing Gorby as
[t]he man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime . . .The press, for the most part, opposed Reagan's defense buildup because (in the press's view) it was certain to lead to war with the USSR. The buildup had just the opposite -- and intended -- effect of ending the threat of war with the USSR. But rather than admit that, the press likes to pretend that the end of the Cold War was Gorbachev's doing. It's like saying that James J. Braddock was responsible for Joe Louis's acsencdancy to the heavyweight boxing championship.*
___________
* For those of you who don't know about Joe Louis's career, he won the heavyweight championship on June 22, 1937, by knocking out Braddock (the defending champ) in the eighth round of their title fight.