The little-known story of the woman who was instrumental in bringing down the Soviet Union.
6 thoughts on “The Beauty Who Killed The Beast”
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The little-known story of the woman who was instrumental in bringing down the Soviet Union.
Comments are closed.
If one gives Joanne Herring some credit for the downfall of the Soviet Union then it’s fair to give her credit for some other things as well. The seeds of both Al Qaeda and the Taliban were planted by the Reagan Administration and Saudi Arabia courtesy of the intervention of Charlie Wilson and Joanne Herring.
I think the Pakistanis and the Saudis would have done it anyway. Afghanistan, and the Cold War, was just a convenient circumstance for them.
Pretty wild – “Charlie Wilson’s War” was on tv just this morning.
I think I’ll ready Herring’s memoirs as well as Crile’s book.
The notion that:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Is an interesting notion to explore historically. I would say, though, that while you might need that small passionate group, the way the world works is that they have to be at the right place at the right time with the right idea, and catch a lot of breaks.
What? The USSR was destroyed by losing in Afghanistan? Actually, no. But it’s the narrative of the latest revisionist history from the Democratic party ministry of information – brought to you by the American Eisenstein, Aaron Sorkin. In point of fact, most of the anti-communist wing of the Democratic party retired or were diriven out after Vietnam and during the Reagan administration the poster boy for Democrat Soviet relations was Ted Kennedy – who wrote to Gorby to let him know Ted was on his side vs Reagan.
The Soviet Union was destroyed by it’s inefficient totalitarian command economy combined with paranoia. The destruction was accelerated substantially by the Reagan defense build up. Soviet economists testified after the break up that they were spending over a third of their GDP on defense to try and keep pace with the west. I’m surprised that Forbes, of all publications would publish what is at best a gross exaggeration and certainly a convenient fiction for the Democrats.
I still wonder what role Desert Storm played in the downfall of the Soviet Union. For years, defense analysts worried about what would happen if the Soviet Union began to crumble, and decided to go to war with the U.S. to try to unify itself. If it won, then it could live off of the spoils for years. If it lost, well, the U.S. had a history of building up vanquished foes. It would have been a no-lose proposition, in Soviet eyes.
But then we went in, (effortlessly) obliterated Iraq, and walked away without looking back. No Marshall Plan, no nothing. That had to have factored into the strategic thinking of Soviet leaders, who finally called it quits later the same year.
Effortlessly? While combat went about as I had expected, we were way better than CNN was willing to admit, I think what was more likely to have given the Soviets pause was the logistical activity leading up to the fighting. The folk in the rear with the gear literally moved mountains (of stuff).
The Red Army had set itself up to be a sprinter, very deadly over short distances but with an economy that was not going to be able to sustain the effort over the long haul. I think they figured out that if they couldn’t get to the Rhine in two weeks they’d never get there, and the two week dash wasn’t in the cards after they saw how the Iraqis dissolved.