Posted on 10/14/2010 8:59:16 PM PDT by tired1
Wasn’t gold also one of the factors? I seem to recall reading that encouraging South Africa to naintain high gold production dropped the price that the Russians could earn for their gold.
Can’t recall the project’s name but it something like this: Canadian intel let CIA know what KGB tech spies were after. Reagan and Casey came up with a SUPER secret plan to let them steal. Bobby Inmann was also involved. They took everything they could get their hands on only to find that some stuff had been “modified”. One of the itmes was software that controlled the pumps on their gas pipeline compressors.
Well, one day there was an explosion that was picked up by satellite. Gorby knew he was screwed! There was no way to tell what was safe because they’d been stealing for such a long time.
Checkmate.
The Soviet Union was papa bear of the Communist bloc. Their currency, the ruble, was the coin of the realm in their bloc. The wealthy West was not about to offer to bail their enemy out. They really had no one they could borrow from when the ruble became worthless. So I am not sure whether I would characterize it as debt or a worthless currency that could not be exchanged for goods for import. Basically, they had no money, no goods and no one in the West was going to loan them money until the regime crashed.
The USSR's downfall was that it was too big to fail.
We (America/Reagan) provided support to him, just how much support is unclear.
Stinger Missles!
Are you shitting me?? Why do you think it is our job to educate you about a subject like that? What makes you think that anyone here could possibly explain almost 100 years of brutal repression and economic failure to you?
Hit Wiki and do a couple of years of reading Zippy, and quit wasting someone else’s expensive bandwidth.
There. Someone needed to say it.
Carry on.
Thanks- what a convoluted world. Tireless patriots manning the walls- thank God for these unsung heroes.
Whatever the cause, the core moment as I remember watching live tv then was the inability to print paychecks for government workers. No pay, no prospect of pay, everyone just went home.
In the 80's I did a bicycle trip all around Russia, Estonia and Latvia (was supposed to hit Lithunia too, but wasn't allowed because of protests). I always had my government "escort" with me to make sure I saw the "right" things and got the correct messages.
I talked to foreign construction workers building Moscow's first McDonalds... and learned that no russian would do the labor. Why work when you make the same money doing nothing?
The story was the same everywhere... why should we work? We can't ever get more by working, so we don't.
The only folks with nice dachas on the rivers were government workers... everyone else lived in the ugly concrete public housing situations, or out in the country in little shacks... farmers... who had to give their products to the government and get back just enough to live on.
They had seperate stores for foreigners and government workers. Those stores had nice things, imported booze, cigarrettes, etc. The "regular" people had to shop in markets which had bare shelves most of the time, and low quality items.
There was no productivity... the economy failed.
This seems to be what Obama wants for us.
Don’t forget the Brezhnev/Andropov/Chernenko Debacle that led to Gorby...
After B died, the power struggle between the KGB and the State Party Apparatchiks came out full steam.
That, combined with Reagan’s pressure, energy prices, the failure of the 4th 5-Year Plan in 8 Years, massive corruption, and a transport infrastructure that was crumbling led to food shortages, and even riots.
By 1986, reports said less than 15% of the food leaving the farms was arriving in the cities. I was a Soviet Specialist in those days, and there were periods where the west had NO IDEA who was in charge, or even still alive, in the Kremlin.
As the saying goes, Socialism only works until you run out of other people’s money to spend....
Don't steam software!
It stops working when wet.
According to Pravda it was a series weather related crop failures.
You might want to go walk your dog.
Other people are having a conversation you don’t wish to be involved in.
Thanks.
“According to Pravda it was a series weather related crop failures.”
Which is true, to some extent.
The Drought of the late 70’s/80’s forced the Russians to buy huge quantities of food and corn on the World Markets. And every Soviet hand that touched it siphoned some off before it got to the cities.
Yes, Viet Nam was costly for the Soviets. At one point, they had upward of 50,000-60,000 troops/advisors in Viet Nam. Also, there was the materiel and economic aid to to the DRVN. They spent a bundle on Ho and the Boys.
It’s early. What do you think? Does she have an annointing?
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