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“Are the changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for real? or could they be apart of a cleverly executed long range plan designed to disarm the United States while providing the Russians with economic aid they desperately need to bail out their collapsed economy?”

In the film, "Blast from the Past", they made fun of this very thing:

ADAM
Dad, I don't know how to tell you
this. And I was going to wait a while,
but I think...Dad,there was no bomb.
A plane crashed into our backyard. I
looked it up in old newspapers.
CALVIN
(after a while)
You're sure?
ADAM
Positive. The Soviet Union collapsed
without a shot being fired. The Cold
War is over.
CALVIN
That's what everybody believes?
ADAM
Yes, sir. It's true.
CALVIN
What? Did the politburo just one day
say - "We give up?"
ADAM
Yes. That's kind of how it was.
CALVIN
Uh-huh.
Adam throws the ball, but Calvin makes no attempt to catch it.
CALVIN
My gosh, those Commies are brilliant!
You've got to hand it to 'em! "No, we
didn't drop any bombs! Oh yes, our
evil empire has collapsed! Poor, poor
us!" I bet they've even asked the
West for aid! Right?!
ADAM
Uh, I think they have.
CALVIN
Hah!!! Those cagey rascals! Those sly
dissemblers! Those, uh...
(he can't think of another
description, so he moves on)
They've finally pulled the wool over
everybody's eyes!

It worked in the movie because that was what was on everyone's mind back then.

The reality was revealed by the Russian Defector, Yuri Bezmenov, who claimed that the Soviets had already sowed the seeds of our destruction.

FULL INTERVIEW with Yuri Bezmenov: The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion (1984)