Analysis: Ronald Reagan's Secret Anti-Soviet War

Insight on the News ^ | June 10, 2004 | Richard Sale

[MountainPatriot]

An awesome array of weapons to defeat communism from a man his critics said was simple-minded. Thank you, Mr. President, for your vision and your leadership. We sleep safer today because of your vision and leadership.

[G L Tirebiter]

The editor needs to do his job. $72 Million is 1% of GDP? The Saudi's are pumping billions of barrels a day? Sloppy stuff.

On the other hand, this sort of info helps make short work of the argument that the USSR imploded on its own and RWR was simply along for the ride.

[Torie]

Wow! Simply wow, particularly the bit of making the Saudi's "whole" from the oil price cut via currency swaps, no doubt giving the Saudi's a "profit" from each swap, while cutting off the Evil Empire from petro dollars. It is AMAZING that that never was exposed. If it had been, a host of other oil exporting countries would have gone nuts, including Mexico. The other Arab oil exporting countries would have also probably tried to assassinate key Saudi leaders, and in general bring the Saudi regime down. The Saudi's took a big risk, and deserve kudos for it. After reading this, I am bit willing to give them some more slack now.

Folks were suggest that Reagan was an amiable dunce, need to read this article.

[Torie]

It was a typo. He meant "billion" not "million."

[Torie]

Reagan certainly helped bleed the Soviets dry, and hasten the demise, but the Soviet economy was doomed anyway, as world demand for goods moved from mass production items, to more high quality customized products, require quick foot work, and changes in production lines, etc. The coming of the information age left the Soviet centrally command controlled mass production economy producing dinosaur goods, that were largely worthless on the open market, and were only bought within the Soviet controlled economic block.

[Physicist]

These sources also said U.S. technology was able to manipulate the sub's instruments, causing them to exhibit "false readings" until it was misled and went aground. "We had that sort of technology," one of the former intelligence officials said.

Oh, now, that's about as elegant as an operation can get. That is a right work of art.

[Torie]

It reminds me of that James Bond movie, where the steering of an automobile was taken over by some remote source, leaving the driver in stark terror (I still remember the priceless expression of the driver, and the car crashed.

[The G Man]

[G L Tirebiter]

Doomed anyway? Perhaps.

But who knows how many more years (or decades)they might have hung around if we hadn't given them such vigorous shoves in the 80's? And the world's a lot safer place without the constant threat of a nuclear war.

Certainly the convential wisdom at the time Reagan took office wasn't bending toward the "doomed" view point.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the most remarkable intelligence operations of the 1980s was revealed a few years ago. U.S. submarines would lie on the floor of the Sea of Okhotsk and intercept messages along an underwater cable that the Soviet military used to communicate with remote military installations on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands. If I remember this story correctly, the U.S. was able to escape detection because the submarines did not tap into the cables themselves -- they were equipped with some kind of super-sensitive equipment that allowed them to "listen" to the messages from the outside.

[chmst]

ping

[Torie]

It was not the conventional wisdom at the time. But there was one man who saw beyond the looking glass at the time that I know of. Do you know who that was? Yep, you guessed it - that most estimable Senators - one of the greatest to ever serve in that body - that Democrat - Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

If Todd Fahey reads this, it will drive him nuts (well that implies he is not currently nuts, which would be an errant implication, so I should say, push him yet farther away from any hope of recovery). I hope he does.

[ThePythonicCow]

Bump - the focus, persistence, variety and success of Reagan's drive to destroy the Soviet Union is stunning.

Not bad, Mr. Reagan, not bad. You done good. Thanks.

[MediaMole]

Sometimes I wonder if the old Saturday Night Live sketch where President Reagan was a kindly doddering fool to the visiting Girl Scouts and Congressional leaders but a sharp, decisive leader with his inner circle wasn't far more accurate than one might imagine.

[general_re]

Operation Ivy Bells.

[Free Vulcan]

The problem with Commie regimes is that they can go on and on if they exploit the free market to give them hard cash flow to fill in the financial cracks. And with the Soviet's natural resource wealth, they could have played the shell game for a long time.

[ER_in_OC,CA]

Fascinating article. I'd love to see collaboration for some of these tales since the source is "Insight Magazine." Insight has always been an interesting and fascinating read, but some of their articles I've read in the past have pushed the credibility envelope.

[Casloy]

I'm paraphrasing, but someone asked the newly elected Reagan what his cold war policy would be and he said "we are going to win it." The man had incredible guts and a profound sense of the use of power. One thing missing in this whole scenario was the cooperation he elicited from the Pope, who delivered tremendous support to our efforts in Poland as long as violence was never one of the tools.

[justa-hairyape]

Former President Reagan was fond of the paraphrased 'There is no limit to what a man can achieve if he does not mind who gets the credit'. When you look at the results of his policies and what they actually achieved, it is sheer folly to think he was just an dimwitted actor. That folly however at least allows the leftists to feel comfortable while being imprisoned within their cells of denial. As many have said, Reagan was a kind and generous man !

[Tailgunner Joe]

Daniel Moynihan did correctly predict the demise of the Soviet Union, but only so he could suggest that our military buildup was unnecessary because the CIA "exonerated" the Soviet threat. He wasted no time after the fall of the Soviet collapse, suggesting that the hated CIA should be abolished.

Furthermore, he claimed that the Venona cables were kept secret from Truman. In fact Truman was warned that the government was infiltrated by Communists, but ignored the threat.

Trying To Wish Reagan Away - According to Mr. Moynihan, he said (Gorbachev) wanted to "free international relations from ideology and seek unity through diversity." He also said the Soviet Union "no longer aspired to be the bearer of the ultimate truth." ...for Mr. Moynihan, a couple of sentences by Mr. Gorbachev had done it all. "It was over," he writes. "The Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union dissolved." Just like that?