The Myth That Mikhail Gorbachev 'Ended the Cold War'

Gorbachev ended nothing. Reality intruded on his tragic and mistaken belief that socialism could work and was inherently good.

NOTE: John Tamny is spot-on in this obituary for the last dictator of the Evil Empire, except in one regard. Reagan did not passively wait for the Soviet Union's demise: he pushed it over the cliff. Understanding its vulnerabilities, he bankrupted it, actively. And because he understood what none of his predecessors and none of the "experts" saw, he alone won the Cold War without firing a shot. -- RDM

by John Tamny
September 9, 2022

It was 1988, and President Ronald Reagan was speaking at a summit in Moscow. In a style that few could emulate, Reagan told a joke. It went like this:

“An American man, boasting to his Russian friend, says the USA is such a great country that anyone can walk up to the White House and shout ‘The President of the United States is a liar and a crook!’ But the Russian shrugs. ‘So what?’ he says. ‘In my country, too, anyone can walk right up to the Kremlin and shout ‘The President of the United States is a liar and a crook!’”

As the great British historian Martin Si…