LOL, I told you I was alerted in 1973, not 1982.
Brezhnev died and was replaced by Yuri Andropov, after he died, he was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, when he died by 1985, Reagan had closed the frightening window that those of us in the MI community feared so much, and the soviets faced reality with a mistake called Gorbachev, who's clumsiness didn't find a way to deal with Reagan's surging West, but instead led to the end of the empire.
Based on this comment where you represented yourself as still being in country or associated with the military. But like I said, you jump about so much that the train of thought or point you are trying to make gets somewhat incoherent to me.
As for Reagan, lets go there as it applies to Russia.
Regan took office in jan 1981. Brezhnev died in 82 and the Russian economy, such as it was, was already broken. There were food shortages, nothing worked and Gobachev had his hands full. We knew this, so what we did was drive them nuts! But Russia was a basket case in the early 80s. When a country begins to destabilize, just as the US is doing now, it become unpredictable. I believe Reagan and his advisors saw it a opportunity and as a diversion to keep them occupied until everything fell apart internally. Maggie Thatcher also played a big role. Without her, the deception would not have worked. And it was a deception. Were they dangerous at that time? I would say yes, but we played right and the results speak for themselves. I would agree that it was a dicey couple of years, but it was not even close to what it was during the Stalin and Khrushchev era. Not even close. If you want to disagree fine, but you have made no cogent arguments to change my mind or position of this.