PJ Media

Nikolay

“Russian people, who eventually dismantled Communism on their own, didn’t feel good about Reagan’s posturing about Evil Empire etc., but they liked Hollywood movies, Playboy magazines, Beatles music (you know, all those forces of decadence that right-wingers bashed). John Lennon and the rest of the “dirty hippies” did 100 times more to defeat Communism than Ronald Reagan, that’s for certain.”

This is complete, fanciful bullshit, from beginning to end, yes, your memories are hazy, and wrong on every count. Yeah, I’ve heard the “rock-n-roll” conquered the Soviet Union many times–always from 1960′s idiots who were actively helping the Soviets wage proxy wars all over the globe. This is after-the-fact reasoning by people whose entire lives were devoted to undermining the US in the Cold War.

At any time, the Soviets could have rolled their tanks into Poland (as they did in Hungary and Czechoslovakia), and sent the message that the fun was over. It ended because the political class and the military couldn’t hold the empire by force anymore; and once it broke on the frontiers, it broke at home, too. Once it was clear the tanks weren’t coming the tidal wave swept fast enough to end it. Had the military held with the old guard, and acted decisively, it would have been over fast for the new openness.

As for the idea that something like Tienanmen square wouldn’t have been possible in the late period of the Soviet regime, you’re nuts.

You don’t even know what a neo-con is, except as a catchy and largely misused catchphrase, and we do not live in a safe or sane world, never have.