(October 2, 2022 at 2:41 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:(October 2, 2022 at 1:30 pm)Jehanne Wrote: Yes, I do read all the responses to my posts in their entirety. In this case, what is there to respond to?? Internal Soviet documents??? The various medieval Inquisitions kept copious notes on their proceedings, also! I do not regard internal Soviet documents as being, necessarily, the ultimate source of truth, or even necessarily representative of the truth.
So, even though there is no evidence that the Soviet Union spent itself into oblivion, you’re going to insist that it did so? I’m happy to consider any evidence you have to support your side of the issue.
But back to our muttons: What has Trump done that would foster the development of a democratic, secular regime in Iran?
Boru
Here is one citation:
Quote:Reagan relaxed his aggressive rhetoric toward the Soviet Union after Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Soviet Politburo in 1985, and took on a position of negotiating. By the late years of the Cold War, Moscow had built a military that consumed as much as 25% of the Soviet Union's gross national product at the expense of consumer goods and investment in civilian sectors.[13] But the size of the Soviet Armed Forces was not necessarily the result of a simple action-reaction arms race with the United States.[14] Instead, Soviet spending on the arms race and other Cold War commitments can be understood as both a cause and effect of the deep-seated structural problems in the Soviet system, which accumulated at least a decade of economic stagnation during the Brezhnev years.[15] Soviet investment in the defense sector was not necessarily driven by military necessity, but in large part by the interests of massive party and state bureaucracies dependent on the sector for their own power and privileges.[16]
Foreign_policy_of_the_Ronald_Reagan_administration#Cold_War
