>From: "K.Feete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Hmmm, well, the USSR seemed to collapse all on its own, frankly. I don't
>seem to recall us having much to do with it. And, from my history lessons
>at least, I don't remember America taking any sort of real *action*
>during the Cold War. There was Korea (disaster), Vietnam (*gigantic*
>disaster), the Cuban missile crisis, a lot of posturing, a lot of good
>sci-fi about the possibility of nuclear war, and McCarthy. Whether or not
>this had anything to do with the fall of the USSR is... debatable.
>
>Kat Feete
The action that the U.S. took was the arms race. We spent a lot of money,
making them spend a lot of money to keep up, which made us spend even more,
which made them spend even more...
The arms race/cold war was basically an economic war. We could afford to
spend more than they could, and they didn't have any money left over to keep
their infrastructure in decent shape.
Let me take a step back from one thing I said just now. We really couldn't
"afford" to spend more than them, the overspending just cost us less in
terms of "opportunity cost."
Also, I'm not saying that the cold war/arms race was a good thing, just that
it is responsible in great part for the fall of the U.S.S.R.
Reggie Bautista
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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