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And yet Reagan armed Afghan in its war against the Russian invaders.
Try to be consistent.
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Good point.
It had some of the same goals, wear down the USSR and encourage them to leave Afghanistan.
This occurred early in Reagan’s tenure. It was an extension/expansion of Carter’s covert support. With plenty of unfortunate side-effects that remain with us today.
Later in Reagan’s tenure he worked hard to negotiate with USSR to reduce threats or improve relations while maintaining America’s strength. I imagine Reagan would have negotiated with Russia to find a solution to avoid the Ukrainian war. Similar to how he worked with the USSR in the various nuke treaties (which aggravated plenty of persons on the right).
Thinking about it, I imagine if Trump remained President he would have avoided the war with Russia by negotiating a security agreement that Putin could live with.
In contrast, Biden/NATO/EU did everything they could to get Russia to invade Ukraine.
Though to be honest, it is likely that as soon as Trump left the white house after a second term, the neo-cons would come back in power, execute a coup in Ukraine (if necessary) and get the war drums beating again. (Just like we witnessed)
I’m a big Reagan fan. That being said, he made some monumental mistakes.
For instance, sending the Marines to Lebanon was a huge error, and cost some 250 US lives.
And he got rolled by the Dems when he “negotiated” the 1986 immigration bill with Tip O’Neill.
Dems are like the Russians: Trust but verify. However, Reagan only applied that standard to the Russians, and not to the Democrats.
Still, I consider (in my humble opinion) that he was — overall — the best president of the 20th century.