A brief summary on the end of the Cold War and Obama's speech today

[underpants]

the point deliberately missed in the coverage today was that the social phase of bringing down the Soviets was making their populice at least familiar with the American public

blues jeans and rock 'n' roll

this was done through rock n roll (the best technology of the day) and culture AND our international sports programs (Olympics)
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there were other huge factors that lead to the demise of the Soviets...namely:

.an economic system that was unsustainable- any reading of their internal discussions tell us that they knew that when Stalin died

.in comes the rock and the roll- letting them in on the American culture and history (Jefferson, Tom Paine, MLK, Nader, etc.) and freedom and expression and getting their ya-ya's out

.throughout this we have massive "military industrial" expansion (we'll get back to that)

.Afghanistan, man did they ever step in to it there. We funded the Mujahadeen which became alQaeda... but that is another story

.DISASTER-Chernobyl. There is a long line of regimes/positions-of-power that have been brought down by "unforeseen" natural disasters or otherwise (read: Katrina)

.then we have another massive expansion of military spending (Reagan) that extended the Soviets simply because their hardass military types weren't going to give up to our hardass military types especially without firing a shot. Hell they bled out the Germans you think they are going to simply be outspent by Americans who just lost a war?

.The Poles- Lech Welasa and Pope John Paul II were a huge influence on the end of the Soviets

.---back to the culture thing- the "Velvet Revolution" was the product of being aware of civil uprising. Those in power simply said "Okay we really weren't that into it anyway". Ceaucesceau had a pro-government televised march in Romania at 10 AM turn on him and he was flying out of the country by that afternoon never to return. Where do you think they learned that from?

.THEN Reagan said one line in one speech

.Gorbachev finally pulled the trigger and said "Okay we are going to end it and this is how...."
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THAT is how the Soviets came down, under their own weight with the help of a three part harmony.

What Obama said today was that the future will be shaped by conversation between the people (not the powerful) and we have the technology to make it happen quicker. The technology at the time (one time) was vinyl records and books, now it is immediate conversation between the masses. This has been the point all along, Obama just made the point on the world stage.....not that anyone on TV will dare connect the dots

[BeFree]

1. You forgot one thing...

...and it may have been the biggest.

Jimmy Carter's persistent Human Rights campaign.