INTELLECTUALS AND WRITERS THEN AND NOW
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in Asia.
It
was not used in Europe. And I also think it's insulting to peo–
ple from Eastern Europe and Russia who helped bring down commu–
nism . Many of them were young people, particularly in Romania,
Poland, and Czechoslovakia . And the first move that brought down
communism was hinted at by Margaret Thatcher when she told Ronald
Reagan that he cou ld get along with Gorbachev. When Gorbachev
announced that no longer would the Soviet Union send tanks into satel–
lite countries, that was the end of communism. That didn't have that
much to do with the American military complex. Yes, the escalation of
the cost of the arms race was something that Gorbachev felt Russia
couldn't afford, but he also thought that he could both libera lize and
modernize, and then couldn't bring it off. He thought he could change
and reform communism, but the whole thing had to go from top to bot–
tom . This wasn't the result of America's military power.
Norman Podhoretz:
The fact that American military power was not
used doesn't mean that the existence of American military power did
not deter the Soviet Union from advancing across the Fulda Gap. Most
survivors of that regime say that this is certainly the case and that what
really destroyed communism and what gave the dissenters heart was
their conviction that not on ly would Star Wars work, but that the Sovi–
ets would never match it. They were also afraid of American economic
power. As for Gorbachev, I think we were very lucky. I think that Gor–
bachev was probably one of the stupidest people who ever lived, imag–
ining that you could preserve communism, which was his objective, by
opening it up and liberalizing it. He did not understand that the only
thing that could keep that bankrupt system going was force . In not
understanding that, he helped bring about its destruction. But if you
talk to people who live there now, they will credit Ronald Reagan's
strong stand for the defeat of communism, and the fact that he called it
the "evil emp ire ." They will credit the fact that we did put missiles in to
balance the SS-IS'S, and so on and so forth . I don't like the term
mili–
tary-industrial complex.
I would say American economic and military
power was largely responsible, and this certainly takes nothing away
from the dissenters within the Soviet Bloc. But they were heartened and
encouraged by the tough stance the United States took . And when the
United States did not take a tough stance they were disheartened.
John Patrick Diggins:
How many times has the United States ever come
to the aid of people fighting for their freedom? What about the Chinese
students in Tiananmen Square? Where was the United States then?
