Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and John Kenneth Galbraith were two that insisted after the fall that USSR collapsed under its own weight, and would have fallen without Reagan - which is now the liberal mantra about Reagan and Russia.
There’s a great book on the subject:
THE PRESIDENT, THE POPE, AND THE PRIME MINISTER
It tells all about how the actions of each one helped to bring down that system.
The left started that, as soon as they thought of it.
I don’t remember those predictions, and can’t find the articles claiming it, instead the USSR seemed to be winning, and they made huge gains under Carter and after we pulled out of Vietnam.
i also recall that angry leftists gave Gorbachev full credit for the dismantling of the USSR. no mention was ever made of Thatcher, Reagan, or Pope John Paul II when they droned on and on about how terrific “old spotty head” was.
i do regret that i was too young (d’oh! by 1 year) to have voted for Reagan in 1984. in my lifetime, i’ve only ever been able to vote for RINOs and squishes... G.H.W. Bush (twice), Dole, G.W. Bush (twice), McCain, and Romney. not a single small government conservative in that bunch. blech.
Galbraith would, up until the Soviet Union died, tell people about how that country and the East Bloc were more efficient at using resources and that their people were not at all interested in Western capitalism and freedoms. In reality though, that country was basically a Third World one with a large army and good hockey team.