Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy That Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union

by Peter Schweizer

Release Date: May, 1996

Edition: Paperback

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How the Cold War was won.

In this book, Peter Schweizer not only gives detailed accounts of the behind-the-scenes strategies on how the Reagan Administration finalized the downfall of the Soviet Union, he thouroughly documents his sources. Schweizer conducted numerous personal interviews with high-ranking officials that worked during the 1980s at the CIA, National Security Administration, and the State Department. From those he lays out how the Reagan teamers put the Soviet Union in a fatal chokehold through three main areas: 1) bargaining with Saudi Arabia to drive oil prices down, ruining Russia's main source of revenue, 2) covert operations to supply the mujahedin fighters in Afghanistan with the arms to expel Russian forces from their country, and 3) underground support for Solidarity members in Poland.

A student friend of mine was taking a course in which his professor was a former head of counterintelligence at the CIA, so I had my friend ask his professor to verify the legitimacy of Schweizer's book. My friend reported back that the professor, who says many reports have been almost fictional, said that he HIGHLY recommends this book for the most honest assessment of how Ronald Reagan and his team won the Cold War.

Right Leader for His Times

At times, it is easy to question the wisdom of the American electorate. Yet at truly critical junctures, the voting public has shown an uncanny knack for electing leaders who were ideally suited for the challenges of the times. Certainly, that was the case in 1932, with the election of FDR, and again in 1980, with the rise to prominence of Ronald Reagan.

The origin of the demise of the Iron Curtain -- and ultimate break-up of the Soviet Union -- can be traced to Reagan's arrival on the world geopolitical stage in the early 1980s. Author Peter Schweizer provides copious evidence for how the Reagan Administration's policies contributed to the collapse of the USSR. Some of these policies included: covert support for Afghan rebels and the Polish underground; the unprecedented military build-up and technology commitment (including SDI); the efforts to stem technology transfers and subsidized financial credits to Eastern Bloc nations, and significantly, to hobble the development of the Siberian natural gas pipeline; the "special relationship" forged with the Saudis, which ultimately led to the precipitous decline in oil prices (costing the USSR billions in lost hard currency).

Reagan's policy of active confrontation with the Soviet Union was a stark departure from bi-partisan orthodoxy, which had attempted to "accommodate," or, at best, "contain" Soviet expansion.