Changes

The fourth and final part of the plan was a war of [[money]]. Reagan devised a plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union. He had always known that the Soviet economy was no more than the size of [[California]]'s and CIA analysis proved him right. Their 500 billion dollars paled in comparison to the 2.5 trillion dollars of the [[United States]]. Reagan used this discrepancy to America's advantage with economic warfare on a scale never seen before. One fought with a new weapon. Reagan made the dollar a weapon for the first time in Soviet history. The Soviet system had been in crisis since 1917, but they had always figured out a way in the [[Kremlin]] to have the West bail them out. Reagan saw to it that that was not going to happen this time. So it was a struggle about dollars and credits as much as it was about tanks and missiles. The means Reagan used was [[oil]] through a partnership with [[Saudi Arabia]]. The Soviet Union's hard currency came from a single source: its mineral wealth of [[oil]] and [[natural gas]]. Reagan secretly sent William Casey, the Director of Central Intelligence, to Riyadh to strong arm the Saudis into tripling oil production, cutting prices by fifty percent. Casey was successful and got the Saudis to go along. Reagan's objective was an economic boom in the West and a crippling blow to the struggling Soviet economy. The desperate Soviets needed hard cash, so they resorted to gas fields in western [[Siberia]]. There solution was a 4,000 mile pipeline connecting the fields to the markets in Western Europe. They believed the prize would be billions of cubic feet of gas flowing from Siberia and therefore tens of billions in hard currency flowing back to [[Moscow]].

The fourth and final part of the plan was a war of [[money]]. Reagan devised a plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union. He had always known that the Soviet economy was no more than the size of [[California]]'s and CIA analysis proved him right. Their 500 billion dollars paled in comparison to the 2.5 trillion dollars of the [[United States]]. Reagan used this discrepancy to America's advantage with economic warfare on a scale never seen before. One fought with a new weapon. Reagan made the dollar a weapon for the first time in Soviet history. The Soviet system had been in crisis since 1917, but they had always figured out a way in the [[Kremlin]] to have the West bail them out. Reagan saw to it that that was not going to happen this time. So it was a struggle about dollars and credits as much as it was about tanks and missiles. The means Reagan used was [[oil]] through a partnership with [[Saudi Arabia]]. The Soviet Union's hard currency came from a single source: its mineral wealth of [[oil]] and [[natural gas]]. Reagan secretly sent William Casey, the Director of Central Intelligence, to Riyadh to strong arm the Saudis into tripling oil production, cutting prices by fifty percent. Casey was successful and got the Saudis to go along. Reagan's objective was an economic boom in the West and a crippling blow to the struggling Soviet economy. The desperate Soviets needed hard cash, so they resorted to gas fields in western [[Siberia]]. There solution was a 4,000 mile pipeline connecting the fields to the markets in Western Europe. They believed the prize would be billions of cubic feet of gas flowing from Siberia and therefore tens of billions in hard currency flowing back to [[Moscow]].

This was an appropriate time to launch a more strategic initiative designed to go after the Soviet Union's domination of Western [[Europe]]'s natural gas markets and major American conglomerates really had no stomach for that at all. In the end, there interest in profits oversees. There was enormous pressure that was brought to bare by companies that were going to be damaged by Reagan's economic war against the Soviet empire. This economic warfare would be applied to wherever the Soviets struck.

This was an appropriate time to launch a more strategic initiative designed to go after the Soviet Union's domination of Western [[Europe]]'s natural gas markets and major American conglomerates really had no stomach for that at all. They were interested in profits regardless of what countries they were dealing with overseas. There was enormous pressure that was brought to bare by companies that were going to be damaged by Reagan's economic war against the Soviet empire. This economic warfare would be applied to wherever the Soviets struck.

The first of these was [[Poland]], which was the epicenter of the Soviet empire and they considered it the crossroads of Europe. It is where all the historic invasions of [[Russia]] had taken place. Tanks rolled onto the streets of Warsaw, road blocks where everywhere, 3.4 million telephones were rendered dead, 250 thousand military personnel were deployed. The Soviets determined that controlling and dominating Poland was vital to protecting the survival of the Soviet empire. Martial law was declared, the Solidarity organization was banned and Lech Wałęsa and five thousand activists were arrested. With the rise of Solidarity, for the first time in the Cold War there was a challenge to their authority in Poland. They installed a puppet government in the country. After the Soviets backed a coup in Poland and declared martial law, Reagan was furious and determined to see Solidarity succeed. The secret funding for Solidarity commenced. It payed for the tools of subversion: printing presses and radio transmitters. Reagan decided that the Soviet sponsorship of martial law in Poland needed to be responded to with economic sanctions. Reagan canceled trade agreements, made grain sales tougher, and restricted credit. The Europeans saw Reagan's tenacity and knew he would not give in. So they fell in line, tightening their lending to the regime in Moscow.

The first of these was [[Poland]], which was the epicenter of the Soviet empire and they considered it the crossroads of Europe. It is where all the historic invasions of [[Russia]] had taken place. Tanks rolled onto the streets of Warsaw, road blocks where everywhere, 3.4 million telephones were rendered dead, 250 thousand military personnel were deployed. The Soviets determined that controlling and dominating Poland was vital to protecting the survival of the Soviet empire. Martial law was declared, the Solidarity organization was banned and Lech Wałęsa and five thousand activists were arrested. With the rise of Solidarity, for the first time in the Cold War there was a challenge to their authority in Poland. They installed a puppet government in the country. After the Soviets backed a coup in Poland and declared martial law, Reagan was furious and determined to see Solidarity succeed. The secret funding for Solidarity commenced. It payed for the tools of subversion: printing presses and radio transmitters. Reagan decided that the Soviet sponsorship of martial law in Poland needed to be responded to with economic sanctions. Reagan canceled trade agreements, made grain sales tougher, and restricted credit. The Europeans saw Reagan's tenacity and knew he would not give in. So they fell in line, tightening their lending to the regime in Moscow.