In your opinion, to what extent did the US and the Reagan and Bush administrations....?

Question

contribute to the collapse of the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

Reagan was completely responsible. He knew that USSR did not have an economy. So he pushed a build up of the military. The USSR could not keep up and collapsed. Good luck ever reading this in a government school book

Answer 2

100%. But let us not forget the Nixon's participation in this too. In a letter to Reagan written in 1980, Nixon, still a big foreign policy buff, wrote "The Real War." This outlined where Russia stands and what proposals Reagan should take to bring down the Soviet Union and end the Cold War.

Nixon advocated massive defense spending since the Soviet Union's infrastructure was crumbling and could not afford a costly arms race. Nixon also advocated playing China against Russia. Reagan did everything Nixon told him to and then some.

Answer 3

Haha homework question huh?

Well, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. arms race are what did the soviet union in... We thought they were spending a quarter of their total budget on their military, but it was actually more than HALF of the ENTIRE federal budget on the military. This had a horrible effect on the national economy. Communism sounds good, but in time it just leads to stagnation and no new ideas or ingenuity. The Soviet Union collapsed because its economy couldn't support itself, and this of course effected the people and discontent rose until finally Gorbechov finally dissolved the union on national television.

Some would like to think that it was because President Reagan stood in front of the Berlin wall and said "Mr. Gorbechov, tear down this wall!", but actually it was because of the Cold War arms race which caused the Soviet Union to fanatically spend on military while ignoring its other domestic needs, bankrupting its federal funds and keeping its citizens decades behind the rest of the industrialized nations.

Answer 4

The Reagan administration played a major role. They forced the USSR into an arms race they couldn't afford & the country went broke.

Answer 5

Definitely they played a key role, but you also had a perfect storm with the Solidarity movement in Poland, the ascendency of Gorbachev over the Politburo, and the amazing presence of Pope John Paul....and yes a little nod to Maggie Thatcher as well.

All of these and the fundamental flaws of Soviet Communism conspired to bring down the Iron Curtain.

Answer 6

have you ever seen news footage of a house hanging on the edge of a cliff with floodwaters eating away below it. the house would collapse at any minute? well reagan runs up , just before it falls in and gives it a shove. and he then claims credit for it.

the majority of soviet military expenses in the 1980's was the 9 year war in afganistan. not an arms race with the US.

the soviet union collapsed from within. somebody above listed several reasons , i agree with him, dont want to repost.

Answer 7

Under Regan's leadership, we simply out produced them proving that Capitalism is superior to Communism. Anyone denying Regan credit for the downfall of the USSR is is delusional.

Answer 8

We outspent them which unfortunately led to a huge national debt but maybe it was worth it.

Answer 9

They (including chimp43) contributed more to the downfall of the USA than the USSR.

Answer 10

The Soviet Union was collapsing for years...

They furthered their own demise by attacking Afghanistan and losing the war there... which reminds me of some other country... hmmm...

Incidentally, Bush senior was head of CIA and with Reagan they funded and armed the predecessors of Al Qaeda...