Sarah Paine – Why Russia Lost the Cold War

[applause] Thank you for coming. It is it's a treat to be with you and sharing all this stuff. Um since we seem to be in a second Cold War, maybe it's a good time to revisit the last one to see why it turned out the way it did and why the participants in it thought it turned out the way it did. So, I'm going to pose the question why Russia lost the Cold War.

And people have loads of different answers to that question. And so this is going to be a tour of the counterarguments. I'm going to start with an answer that many Americans have. Very simple one that's like Ronald Reagan single-handedly defeated the Soviet Union.

So that's one possible answer, but then I'm going to give you all kinds of counterarguments to that. And some of them are going to be other external explanations of what others did to the Soviet Union. Others are internal ones of what the Soviet Union, the cards that didn't play particularly well. And then I've got some umbrella explanations.

So that's my plan for this evening. The story that Ronald Reagan did it. Well, here's a picture at the Reagan ranch after the Cold War is over. You see the Gorbachoffs and you see the Reagans and they seem to be having a grand old time, which suggests there's something maybe off with that explanation.

But anyway, the way uh the Ronald Reagan did at school is Ronald Reagan uh did a massive military buildup. and that some would argue it bankrupted the Soviet Union. He was a man of words and deeds. He made really good speeches that were memorable.

Here's one before parliament where he says, "The regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than 30 years to establish their legitimacy, but none, not one regime has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root." And then here he is before the Brandenburgg gate. This is in Berlin. Long a symbol of German greatness, but then it was a locked gate on the Berlin wall.

And here's Ronald Reagan. General Secretary Gorbachoff. If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come to this gate. Mr.

Gorbachoff, open this gate. Tear down this wall. And who can forget ...