Soviets

When President Reagan took office in January 1981 the cold war was in full swing. The idea of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was seen by Reagan as ludicrous and he set about to develop a different approach. He met with scientist who told him that a defensive ring of satellites could be set up to intercept Russian missiles and he started the program which was derisively called Star Wars. The Soviets had been in a arms race with the US and it was slowly bringing their economy down. When Reagan announces his intentions along with additional defense spending the Soviets knew they could not compete. This was step one of Reagan's plan to destroy the Soviet Union. A short time later workers at a Polish shipyard revolted and Reagan saw an opening. US labor unions were sympathetic to the Polish workers and Reagan went to Rome to meet with the Polish born pope. He confided with the Pope his desire to help the Polish workers and the CIA set up secret plans to help the workers. The next step required the US to place restrictions on technology going to the Soviets. The Russians who where dependent on oil exports needed to build a pipeline but they needed Western engineers to help. Reagan working secretly persuaded other Western countries not to provide the needed engineers. Finally Reagan persuaded the Saudis to increase the world supply of oil to bring down the price and this further damaged the Soviet economy. These measures set the stage for the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union.