Gorbatchev

by Gorb 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  BettyHumpter

  "I have always held that the negotiations and leadership which defused the cold war was one of the greatest accomplishments of the 20th century. Kudos to Reagan and Gorbachev."
  
  Reagan I suppose learned from his mistakes. But the combination of a paranoid Politburo and Reagan's chest thumping rhetoric (in his first term) got us within a hair's breadth of Nuclear War in the autumn of 1983. Some say the closest since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Once he learned how freaked out the Soviets were in thinking we were about to launch a first strike and some in the Politburo were urging Andropov to preempt, he was horrified and toned it down.
  
  The scary thing is that in the Cuban Missile crisis, both sides at least knew what was going on. During Able Archer in 1983, the U.S was oblivious that the USSR was in a panic until it was all over.
  
  Then of course, the good fortune to have Gorbachev take office who he was able to do business with to turn down the heat.
  
  This is a great book about that particularly frightening year: