tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354591394765306254.post6353157359396375203..comments2022-12-11T01:32:04.557+13:00Comments on Around the World in Flightless Ways: HIstoryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354591394765306254.post-53868806274392236052010-10-11T22:11:53.031+13:002010-10-11T22:11:53.031+13:00The Trotskyites at University in our early days st...The Trotskyites at University in our early days studying politics. There was one chap in an international relations paper I did who turned up with a CCCP t-shirt every day and spent forever telling us that the US was a "society in decline". As it turned out the Soviet Union had vanished within a year and America went on to have nearly two decades of substantial economic growth and a falling crime rate, but then we're all millionaires in hindsight. <br /><br />Star Wars is interesting as it always seemed to me even at the time that the prgramme was a bit of a fantasy, in that it would be impossible to create a perfect missile shield, and yet as Jinx says scared the Soviets rather a lot. <br /><br />I suppose the generation of Soviet leaders for one reason or another just didn't have the stomach to become repressers of the scale of Stalin or the present day North Koreans, otherwise "people power" would have been met with tanks as in Hungary 1956, the Prague Spring in '68 or or Tianamen Sq in '89. <br /><br />BTW have become involved in something of a public debate on free speech - please weigh in for or against here: <br /><br />http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2010/10/06/the-stig-revealed-why-and-does-it-matter/comment-page-1/#comment-1022James Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05200860773221870979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354591394765306254.post-50816444025521231202010-10-11T09:55:32.303+13:002010-10-11T09:55:32.303+13:00A fantastic recent book on the Cold War-John Lewis...A fantastic recent book on the Cold War-John Lewis Gaddis, really gives a clear understanding on its rise and fall. He's a liberal academic, but I was surprised to read his comments re the significance of Reagan's refusal to just go along with the accepted wisdom of the nuclear balance, and the implications his "Star Wars" concept had on Russion thinking.Jinxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06656560462128196706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354591394765306254.post-7160880226714642812010-10-11T01:25:08.303+13:002010-10-11T01:25:08.303+13:00Yes, the arms race in the cold war was key factor ...Yes, the arms race in the cold war was key factor in brining down the Soviet system. So was that system's inability to provide the material needs of its population. I think people power was the tipping point though - without it, the system may have dragged on a few more decades or become like North Korea today or become something worse: a brutal totalitarian regime without even the ideological impetus of communism.<br /><br />PS who or what are 'the old Trots'?Simohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09240527622510390345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354591394765306254.post-33633052272860997722010-10-10T07:23:55.984+13:002010-10-10T07:23:55.984+13:00I still remember the old Trots (and young trots fo...I still remember the old Trots (and young trots for that matter) saying how the USSR had been the great just society and that capitalism would be a disaster. In many respects the transition was handled very badly. But given the hopelessness of the places under Communism it's hard to argue twenty years later that the fall of the USSR was a bad thing. <br /><br />I doubt that it was mostly down to grassroots opposition; more te defeat in the cold war, which was due to not being able to keep pace with the US in the arms race and the US backed mujahaddin defeating the Red Army in Afghanistan. Something tells me the US aren't quite as proud of the latter nowadays.James Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05200860773221870979noreply@blogger.com