The Reagan campaign against the Soviet empire

This post will examine some of the indisputable, contemporaneous evidence of actions taken by the Reagan administration to hasten the overthrow of the Soviet empire. The record of this is enormous, and it is unquestionable that this was a real campaign. While this post can only scratch the surface, there will be enough to make it clear that there was an explicit Reagan campaign to get rid of the Soviet empire, that this campaign found several strategies which could have an impact, and that the impact included great strain on the Soviets.

National Security Directive 32, which has since been declassified, stated the goal:

To contain and reverse the expansion of Soviet control and military presence throughout the world . . . (emphasis added).

Pursuant to this, National Security Directive 45 laid out the plans for the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and similar efforts. For example:

Allocation of budgetary and other resources [to broadcasting] . . . shall be accorded the same priority as . . . other programs deemed vital to national security.

Particularly in view of the recent renewal of jamming of VOA by the Soviet Union, it is essential that the US take all possible steps to overcome jamming . . . and to ameliorate its effects.

Similarly, National Security Directive 54 laid out policy towards Eastern Europe:

The long-term US goal in Eastern Europe is to . . . [blacked out] facilitate its eventual reintigration into the European community of nations.

Directive 54 then went into detail about how the US would use trade, credit, and high-level visitation policy to encourage the governments of Eastern Europe to liberalize, and to lessen their dependence on the USSR.

And National Security Directive 75 laid out policy towards the USSR:

To contain and reverse Soviet expansionism (emphasis added) . . . .

The directive then goes on with a long list of ways in which this could be accomplished, such as:

-- Expose at all available fora the double standards employed by the Soviet Union . . . (e.g. treatment of labor, policies toward ethinc minorities . . .)

-- Prevent the Soviet propaganda machine from siezing the semantic high-ground . . . through the appropriation of such terms as "peace".

-- Sustaining Steady, long-term growth in U.S. defense spending and capabilities (emphasis in the original)

Afghanistan: ensure that the Soviets' political, military, and other costs remain high while the occupation continues.

According to "The Crusader", Paul Kengor's book about Reagan's campaign against the Soviets, an internal document stated that the goal of the Reagan military buildup was to develop weapons that

are difficult for the Soviets to counter, impose disproportionate costs, open up new areas of major military competition, and obscelesce previous Soviet investment."

The Soviets had a long-term plan to steal Western technology which they were unable to develop on their own. The Reagan Administration's answer was to put hidden flaws into the technology the Soviets were going to steal.

As we said at the beginning, this only scratches the surface of the ways in which the Reagan Administration worked to bring down the Soviet Union.

Impact
What was the impact of these efforts?

Afghanistan
The Soviets were eventually defeated in Afghanistan, forced to withdraw after suffering more troop and aircraft losses than they were willing to sustain. They have never released formal statistics. However, this incomplete list of Soviet aircraft losses in Afghanistan in Wikipedia shows increasing numbers of aircraft shot down (as opposed to lost due to mechanical problems) during the Reagan years. One of the Reagan initiatives was to deliver shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to the Afghan resistance.

Stolen Technology
US-inspired flaws in pipeline control technology stolen by the Sovets led to an enormous gas pipeline explosion in Siberia, and to Soviet uncertainty about which stolen technology could be trusted.

Economy
The collapse of the USSR is frequently attributed in part to the collapse of its economy.

Conclusion
The Reagan Administration had an explicit campaign to bring an end to the Soviet Empire. This campaign imposed great costs on the Soviet Union, which collapsed shortly after Reagan left office.