History Corner: Did Reagan and Gorbachev "Win" the Cold War?

Our partner, The Journal of American Studies, has posted a challenging roundtable on Melvyn Leffler's recent book, For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. International scholars Mario del Pero (Italy), David Ryan (Ireland), Anders Stephanson (US), and Natalia Yegerova (Russia) critique Leffler's focus, through pairings such as Truman-Stalin, Eisenhower-Malenkov, Kennedy-Khrushchev, and Carter-Brezhnev, on why the conflict did not end until the interaction of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s.

Leffler concludes the roundtable with this provocative question: "Throughout my book there is a tension: were or were not leaders decisive?"

Read roundtable....

Comments

[Dave]

I'll have to read it later...

Random comments for now --

Chernenko did call for talks in September 1984, but Regan stalled. Pershing II deployments were still ongoing. USSR began the deployment of the SS-20 in 1976 and was already wrapping it up. Reagan thought that by waiting until the Pershing IIs were deployed in full, he could be in a stronger bargaining position. A debate that year (1984) involving the 8 Democratic presidential candidates at Dartmouth College focused on a 'nuclear freeze'. It was nationally televised. And don't forget the million citizen march in NYC, 1982. But the pressure was really building by '84 - months before Chernenko's death in March, '85.

PUBLIC OPINION and CITIZEN ACTION -- The Soviet Union had been making attempts to appeal to American public opinion. Soviet dialogue with American scientists and Andropov's letter of invitation to Samantha Smith must have had some effect in getting the Administration to respond -- Geneva Rekjavik, http://www.peace-kids.org/peacekids_trips.html (Natalya Lycheva, Star Rowe).

All of this added pressure to the Reagan Administration. I think the citizen action -wllingness to challenge the authority of their government on nuclear arms proliferation FORCED politicians to confront the problem. The nationwide citizen movement is a DIRECT DESCENDANT of the anti-war movement, after all. Many thousands were involved. It just so happened that Gorbachev had taken office when Reagan's back was against the wall. But as I said earlier -- Pershing II deployments were completed by '85 and that gave Reagan the breathing space he wanted.

EDIT -- Also, Gorbachev may have had seconds thoughts on his ideological stance, but it is important to note that Andropov was also reform-minded and he influenced Gorbachev to a significant degree.

I hope that adds to the debate. I'll have to read the article carefully later.