Question

It would be easy to dismiss the Cold War simply as proof that Capitalism was a better theory than Communism. Easy, but not the whole story. In order for Communism to be relegated to the dustbin of history, it first had to be proven that its struggle against Capitalism unnecessary and thus irrelevant. How do the US and the USSR close the gap in the last quarter of the 20th Century to allow Communism to go out with a whimper and not a bang?

Answer 1

Once economic, political and military reversals left the Western world reeling. But for the SovietUnion, the gods of fortune were smiling in the 1970.Major Siberian oil discoveries came into production in the 1970s, providing the Soviets with an exportable surplus of oil." Without the discovery of Siberian oil, the Soviet Union might have collapsed decades earlier."In accumulation, many Arab oil states used their sudden wealth to purchase Russian arms. Dependence on oil and natural resources exports actuallydates from Tsarist days. Because of these easy revenue sources, Russian leaders have no need to free their economy and society adequately to competitively produce high value added finished industrial and consumer goods. This same curse of wealth in natural resources still afflicts many third world nations. Governments that are not dependent on the wealth of their people for their revenues frequently don't give importance to their own individuals