Today marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event heralded by conservatives and liberals alike as the beginning of the end of communism. I would like to address one of the largest fallacies related to the end of the Cold War.
Ronald Reagan Ended the Cold War
Many conservatives who try to hold up Ronald Reagan as some sort of Cold War capitalist saint try to paint Reagan as one of driving forces behind the collapse of communism and the Berlin Wall in particular. They try to hold up his "Tear Down This Wall" speech as the impetus for tearing down the wall and that is a gross exaggeration. First of all that speech was made in 1987 and was just another in a long line of speeches made by Western leaders that viewed the Berlin Wall as a symbol of communist tyranny. The "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech made by John F Kennedy was another speech in the same vein. Second, there were many reasons why the East German government decided to allow the demolition of the wall, all of which were motivated by internal problems. Third, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, while a potent symbolic gesture, did not cause the subsequent fall of the communist governments in Eastern Europe.
Claims that Reagan ended the Cold War usually hinge on the idea that his constant pressure on the Soviet Bloc led to its internal collapse. While the Soviet Bloc did collapse from internal problems, Reagan was not the cause for this. The Soviet Bloc collapsed because of economic stagnation due to poor management by selfish leaders that couldn't see past their own self interest. They constantly set poor economic targets, liberalized the economy, and refused to allow the socialist system to work properly. Had the Soviet leadership permitted the proper kind of industrial development they could have prevented what was known as the Brezhnev Stagnation. The USSR could have blown past the US in scientific development had they been permitted to properly pursue scientific research. They could have had much more access to consumer goods had proper measures been taken to allow for the development of those industries along with other sectors of the economy.
Another factor that resulted in the collapse of communism was that the USSR was involved in a military debacle in Afghanistan that lasted a decade that further destabilized that nation in much the same way as the Vietnam War effected the US. Almost 10,000 soviet soldiers died in that conflict and it led to mass distrust by Soviet citizens against their government.
The final collapse came when the leaders of the Soviet Bloc countries, let by the USSR, allowed open elections. There had been enough simmering anger against those selfish regimes that most countries immediately took the opportunity to oust those leaders from power. It must be remembered that the USSR led the way on this and had Gorbachev not allowed free elections in the USSR then the rest of the Warsaw Pact would have done the same. It is now quite well known that Gorbachev was not actually a communist but a closet liberal masquerading as a communist. He may not have been actively seeking the downfall of the USSR but was perfectly accepting of the idea of allowing elections that would likely result in the removal of the communists from power. Because of the weak economy and distrust caused by the Afghan War, most Soviet citizens were exited by the possibility to vote against the Communist Party of the USSR. The election of Boris Yeltsin only cemented the end of the Communist Party with the election of a conservative to lead Russia. Yeltsin's actions following the army coup only showed his true colors. When Yeltsin decreed that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was now illegal he openly placed himself against communism. Yeltsin's rise to power was the last nail in the coffin of the Soviet Bloc.
Almost all the factors that contributed to the collapse of communist countries in Eastern Europe were internal in nature and had nothing to do with Reagan or American foreign policies. They had great economic stagnation, a hated war, and political destabilization, none of these factors were directly caused by the US. Certainly US policy exacerbated these problems through espionage and direct aid to Afghanis fighting the Soviets (one fun fact we Americans like to forget is that Reagan is directly responsible for the rise of Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda because he actively provided bin Laden, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda with weapons to fight the Soviets without making provisions to prevent them taking political power after the Soviets left. In this way Reagan is indirectly responsible for 9/11 but you won't hear any conservative make any mention of that) but more than likely the Soviet Bloc would have collapsed of its own accord. Even had free elections been prohibited in the USSR it is evident that the military would not have accepted the leadership of Gorbachev and would have moved to seize power itself leading to a military dictatorship or some other political system that did not involve leadership by the Communist Party.
Just as a side note I would like to include that most of the actual collapses occurred during the presidency of George H.W. Bush but you don't see anyone trying to give him credit for the collapse of communism. This entire narrative surrounding Reagan and the fall of communism is an attempt to sanctify him and put him up on a pedestal as the perfect modern conservative President that cemented the hegemony of the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment