Agreed, he had little choice in the matter, as Reagan was breaking the back of the Soviet economy with a multi-front series of attacks (and Chernobyl didn’t help them in this regard). If he didn’t go along, his only choice was war - and I heard personally from someone in the know that in 1982 the Soviet general staff told the Politburo that they could never defeat the West, and that they should work out their best possible deal. This was in the immediate aftermath of the Israelis Downing 79 of the most advanced Soviet aircraft in Lebanon in 1 battle, many surreptitiously piloted by Russians, without the loss of a single aircraft of their own. It is likely that this recommendation led to the appointment of Gorbachev, since the appointment of a well-spoken and educated reformer was viewed as being less risky than putting in just another old Communist who would die in 5 years or less.
Very interesting . The Soviet Union deployed a lot of pilots to Manchuria to participate in the air war over Korea. The Russians were already experienced jet pilots and flew the Mig-15 very well. Their success in air to air combat with the F-86 was much greater than the USAF would allow to be released for decades. The Soviets redeployed most of these pilots back to Europe in early 1953 and the USAF victory rate shot up against a purely CCF opposition. The redeployment was to provide experienced cadre for a much enlarged jet equipped tactical force being rolled out in the Soviet Union and in East Germany.
The lesson here might be that both US technology in the 1980’s was really superior to the best Soviet products (as was shown in the Gulf War in 1991) and that the Soviets very low number of flying hours (I have been told it averaged out around two (2) hours per month) for their pilots versus Israelis who flew every week in an operational environment.
Each major battle in the air has its own characteristics. Technology changes the parameters so greatly that a decade can make the situation completely different.