I liked Reagan, but I think he gets too much credit for ending the Soviet empire. He definitely helped it along, but I think the collapse was inevitable. Sort of a right place right time thing. /QUOTE]
Nope. The political mood pre-Reagan was "go along, get along." The official policy name for that approach was "détente." Jimmy Carter helped keep the Soviet Union alive by refusing to engage in an arms race, and by giving them excellent prices on American food - at least until the invasion of Afghanistan.
Reagan, on the other hand, believed that the United States could bury the Soviet Union. He was met with protests in Western Europe, and cries that he was forcing the Soviet Union to upgrade its military and get into war with the United States. Some went so far as to call Reagan a "warmonger" for the United States military build-up (designed to drive the Soviets into bankruptcy).
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AAIBAJ&sjid=lo0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4132,526779&hl=en
http://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/10...e-interrupted-President-Reagan/9280467352000/
His domestic policies were just typical republican type stuff. Cut programs for the poor... drastically lower taxes for the upper income folks... anti union...
No, his tax cuts reduced taxes for all taxpayers. Further, this idiotic meme that the tax cuts "benefitted only the rich" has been proven, time and again, to be a lie:
Lot of folks still waiting for all that money that was supposed to "trickle down" to everyone. Oh well, it sounded good on paper.
You were saying??