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Posted by Bendito at June 14, 2004 11:50 AM

Gorbachev is probably one of the most under appreciated statesmen in the world. I consider the US as incredibily fortunate to have a leader in Reagan willing enough to let Gorbachev be Gorbechev. Other Presidents could have been stupid enough to send boxes of poisoned cigars or missles at the first sign of perestroika. Other administrations would have exploited such 'weakness' to cause a rapid full-blown bloody-as-possibile collapse or acted to keep a Cold War status quo intact.

Does anyone know of a good biography of Gorby in english?

Posted by idiosynchronic at June 14, 2004 12:53 PM

idiosynchronic, you hit on the one thing Reagan did contribute toward the end of the Cold War. While so many give credit to the arms buildup, it was Reagan's arms reductions that helped give Gorbachev some cover. Kevin Drum has updated his post, linking to Fred Kaplan, who describes this effect. Still undiscussed is the end of the Brezhnev doctrine, however, which was key to letting the first dominos fall in Eastern Europe.

Posted by CA Pol Junkie at June 14, 2004 01:46 PM

All of these analyses of the end of the Cold War give not credit or, in this case too little credit, to the people who lived in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They struggled and suffered for years, but in ways both big and small, they kept the pressure on.

There is a persistent conceit in Americans that leads them to believe that events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were the product of American policy. This is absurd. The Nazis couldn't bring down the Soviet Union by attacking it. The Soviet Union fell because its citizens and the citizens of its subject states rejected it.

Posted by James E. Powell at June 14, 2004 09:59 PM

Agree with last commenter.

Alex

Posted by Alex at June 15, 2004 11:59 AM