Detente, hell. Every drop of oil the USSR could drill was used to pay for the wheat. Every speck of gold in their reserves. Every speck of gold they could get from dredging their river deltas. Every bit of foreign currency.
All for wheat. And as paranoid as they were, they would never eat our wheat. They used it to feed their farm animal based agricultural system, and diverted the animal fodder for humans.
But it was never enough. A year would pass and they would *have* to have more money, like a junkie needs more drugs.
When Reagan finally announced the SDI, like we were made of money, it broke their will. There was no way they could pay the unbelievable amounts of money to build their own anti-missile system.
Towards the end, they were so desperate, they even opened a bank in Switzerland, hoping that somehow they could parlay a moderate stake into a fortune, betting against capitalists.
The Swiss raped them. Even the president of their bank had no idea where the money went. It just seemed to disappear.
He was recalled to Moscow. I've no idea if they shot him for losing however many of their precious millions they had left.
This was explained to me by an agribusiness professor at my State University. He sneered at those who criticized Reagan for selling wheat to the Soviets. They simply had no idea.
I agree with your academic that it was smarter to sell wheat than donate it to the Soviets, and SDI was a large economic challenge. But it is simply an historical inaccuracy that every scrap of wealth was confiscated for the purpose of buying wheat. The bottom line is that the Soviet Empire had greater soil resources and many resources much greater than America's. It was the Socialist system that failed for decades to realize the development of their natural wealth. Socialism, which is the same as "liberalism," doesn't work. This is why the Reds failed. Thank God that Reagan didn't continue propping them up as both parties had done for over a decade.