Actually, Matthew Evangelista has established that the Star Wars hoax did not induce
the Soviets to increase military expenditures. Soviet growth rates are a vexed matter.
Your statement of the matter represents the normal view as of, say, 1985, and it still
may be right, but there were other figures that suggest that things were worse than
was usually understood, particularly if oil revenues are left aside. as usual with
planned economies, no good and accurate information was available.
--jks
In a message dated Fri, 14 Jul 2000 10:52:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Michael
Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
<< Excellent post, Louis. I would add only one minor point. My understanding was
that the Soviet economy continued to grow during the 70s, but that the rate of
growth declined quite a bit. The Star Wars hoax made the Soviets think that
they would have to significantly increase military expenditures. How would the
U.S. economy faired if it were surrounded by powerful enemies with enormous
military might and if a major superpower were doing everything it could to
sabatoge the economy and society?
