The Soviet union was already in the process of creating it’s own “collapse”, which is what communism always accomplishes in the long run. We didn’t need to pick sides of which communist regime we should have relations with and we shouldn’t have. We should have rejected communism outright, not try to be friends with any of them. Look where it’s gotten us, China is already, in our lifetimes, a huge threat to us and our way of lives. Consider, it appears they may have even used a biological weapon on us (covid).
People of my age (60ish), were warned over and over again, most of us by our parents, teachers and clergy. How did we ever blow off all of that wisdom and knowledge?
The downfall started when Nixon visited China and opened ‘friendly’ relations with them instead of treating them like the filthy greedy lying communists they are and refusing to accept communism in any form.
The good “chess move” was followed by bad ones, the bad ones don’t negate the good one.