Please don't tell people are still buying into the myth that Reagan, the Neo-libs and the pope had anything other than a minute role in the collapse of the behemoth that was the Soviet Union.
Thought that had been debunked ages ago.
You can't debunk the truth.
Reality of course is a bit more complicated. The Soviet Union was starting to fail by the late 1970s, but few in the west knew it. The choice was between maintaining a hardline policy and encouraging their collapse, or agreeing to make things easier for them in return for better surface relations in the short run.
Reagan and Thatcher chose the former; Carter and Mondale would definitely have chosen the latter.
Exactly, that's why Reagan's SDI or "Star Wars" kicked ass, because the Soviets knew if the U.S. had one, they would have to have one and the country was flat ass broke.
