History is such a joke? When Gorbachev brought down the Soviet Union, the United States reacted in this way

History is sometimes like a mischievous boy who prefers to make unpredictable jokes.

Thirty-five years ago, the superpower that had attracted the attention of the world suddenly collapsed, and the red flag fell in a daze, and the whole world was shocked.

Gorbachev, who led this great change, originally wanted to save the country through reform, but unexpectedly became a "send-off man" and personally demolished the edifice of the Soviet Union.

What is even more surprising is that the old opponent who has been fighting with the Soviet Union for decades did not applaud beside him, but showed a complicated expression.

Is it a sigh of relief or a hidden uneasiness?

Behind this incident, it is obviously not as simple as it seems, and today, let's peel back this history.

Why did the USSR come to an end

The collapse of the Soviet Union did not happen overnight, but was the result of decades of accumulation of problems.

Back in the Lenin era, the Soviet Union relied on the spark of Marxism and revolutionary fervor to rise from a backward agricultural country to an industrial power.

In Stalin's hands, the momentum was even stronger.

He was preoccupied with the development of heavy industry, the production lines of tanks, artillery, and airplanes were busy, and his military power was rapidly developing to the point of approaching the United States.

But behind this brilliance, the price is not small. The lives of ordinary people are squeezed to the point where light industry and the production of civilian goods are almost ignored, and shops are often empty.

Stalin's idea was very straightforward: if you want to be the boss of socialism, you have to be tough, and you can't let Europe and the United States look down on it, but this kind of "hardness" has made the economic structure very crooked.

After Stalin left, Khrushchev took over.

As soon as he came up, he flipped the table and criticized Stalin as indecent, saying that he was the main culprit for the cult of personality.

This sounds relieving, but the consequences are not good, a country, like a big family, the leading brother is so denied by the descendants, and the people below will inevitably panic.

Once the foundation of faith is shaken, it is easy to scatter the sand.

To make matters worse, Khrushchev himself failed to come up with a reliable plan.

He changed back and forth, his policies were erratic, the economy did not improve, and social contradictions deepened.

By the time of Brezhnev, the Soviet Union was still holding on to the shelf of a great power on the surface, but it had long been rusty internally, corruption was spreading, and efficiency was low.

Calls for reform are getting louder, but no one knows where to go.

It was at this time of great turmoil that Gorbachev came to power.

With a lot of enthusiasm, he wanted to give the Soviet Union a major operation. It's a pity that his "prescription" was too fierce and did not target the root of the disease.

For example, the famous prohibition at that time seemed to sound quite reasonable: drinking alcohol was wrong, and food was wasted, and banning it could save money and improve efficiency.

But he forgot that it was an old tradition for the fighting people to drink spirits, and it was bitterly cold in winter, and wine was not only a pastime, but also a necessity to warm up.

Not to mention the civil complaints, the treasury has also lost the large revenue of the liquor tax.

Not to mention the moonshine workshops that sneaked up and the market was in chaos.

Gorbachev's reforms did not have a bad starting point, but they always gave people the feeling that "a layman commands an insider".

He was superstitious about the West, and copied it, but he didn't think about whether the foundation of the Soviet Union could hold up.

The ideological confusion is even worse, the soul of the USSR is ideology.

But Gorbachev blindly moved closer to the West and opened up public opinion, and as a result, Western ideas poured in like a tidal wave.

Young people began to doubt the past, believing that socialism was a dead end, and the people's trust in the government plummeted.

The national question also exploded at this time.

The Soviet Union was a multi-ethnic country, and the union republics had their own ideas, and as soon as Gorbachev loosened his bonds, Lithuania and Ukraine immediately became independent.

The "August 19 Incident" in 1991 became the last straw, the CPSU was in chaos, and Gorbachev was completely out of control.

By December 25, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a foregone conclusion. This reform was supposed to save lives, but it became a life-saving talisman.

The first reaction of the United States

On the day the news of the collapse of the Soviet Union spread, many people thought that the United States would set off firecrackers to celebrate.

After all, the Cold War has been fought for half a century, and the biggest opponent has fallen, shouldn't the United States be happy? But the reality doesn't follow the script.

When President George H.W. Bush heard the news, his face was not happy, but he frowned.

His statements in public were cautious, even a little heavy. This reaction is puzzling:

Isn't it a good thing that the Soviet Union is gone, and the United States dominates the world? But Bush Sr. knew in his heart that things were not so simple.

As soon as the Soviet Union fell, on the surface, the United States won the Cold War, but in reality, the trouble had just begun.

The territory left by the Soviet Union is so big, the 15 union republics are in their own way, who will fill the power vacuum?

This mess is not easy to clean up, and what Bush Sr. is worried about is that once the situation gets out of control, regional conflicts may break out one after another.

What is even more troublesome is that if the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons and military technology were to be dispersed, the consequences would be unimaginable.

A stable opponent is gone, but in exchange for the unknowns of the world.

This uncertainty is even more of a headache than the confrontation with the Soviet Union.

George H.W. Bush's team is also sober.

They know that the United States' global position is unique for a while, but in the long run, the challenges will only increase.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, allies such as Europe and Japan may reconsider their interests, and American leadership may not be as solid as it was during the Cold War.

Not to mention, new opponents will emerge sooner or later, and you will have to find a routine from scratch when the time comes.

For the United States, the disappearance of the USSR was not the end, but the beginning of another game.

Why did the United States keep a hand in secret

The United States did not want the Soviet Union to fall apart completely.

This sounds a bit winding:

The two sworn enemies have been fighting for decades, shouldn't the United States wish that the Soviet Union would be finished sooner?

But if you think about it carefully, when the Soviet Union was alive, the United States had a better life, although it was tense.

At the time of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was the "public enemy" of the Western world, and no matter how much European countries had friction with the United States, they had to huddle together to keep warm, and the United States naturally became the leader.

This kind of unity was brought about by the "help" of the Soviet Union, and if the Soviet Union was gone, it is difficult to say whether Europe would still be so obedient.

There is also science and technology, in the years when the United States and the Soviet Union were vying for hegemony, you chased after each other, and aerospace and military technology rushed forward.

The moon landing program, the Star Wars program, and these big plans are all the driving forces behind each other's competition.

As soon as the Soviet Union falls, the United States will have one less opponent who can wrestle its wrists, will the spark of innovation also dim?

Bush Sr. also has a good idea of this problem, and an opponent who is evenly matched can sometimes be more effective than an ally.

Digging deeper, the United States and the Soviet Union actually have a bit of a "tacit understanding".

For example, when it comes to containing other emerging powers, the two powers are less polarized.

In the late Cold War, China's rise became more and more significant, and neither the United States nor the Soviet Union were happy to see a third player jump out and share the pie.

When the Soviet Union was there, the pressure of the United States could still be dispersed; With the Soviet Union gone, the United States would have to face more uncertainties on its own.

In addition, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, if those nuclear warheads fall into the hands of unreliable countries, the life of the United States will only be more difficult.

Therefore, the elder Bush would rather the Soviet Union shakily alive than see it completely shattered into chicken feathers.

In August 1991, George H.W. Bush went to Ukraine and delivered the famous "Kiev speech."

He advised Ukraine not to rush to independence, saying that freedom does not mean secession, and this was clearly an attempt to stabilize the Soviet Union's shelf.

It's a pity that Ukraine didn't listen to the persuasion and flew solo a few months later.

The efforts of the elder Bush are like putting a plaster on a leaky ship, treating the symptoms but not the root cause, and the collapse of the Soviet Union is already an unstoppable torrent.

The delicate intersection of Gorbachev and Bush Sr

Speaking of which, we have to mention the personal relationship between Gorbachev and Bush Sr.

These two are rivals in public, but in private they have a bit of sympathy for each other.

It is said that Gorbachev called Bush Sr. "Brother George," and the conversation on the phone was quite hot.

This relationship has somewhat affected the attitude of the United States.

The elder Bush wanted to help Lagorbachev on more than one occasion to help him stabilize the situation in the Soviet Union.

For example, in the phone call in May 1991, the elder Bush tried to give advice, but unfortunately Gorbachev's reforms had long since gone astray and could not be pulled back at all.

There is a more practical side to Bush Sr.'s "helping hand."

He visited the Soviet Union, advised the republics not to break up, and even discussed economic aid with Gorbachev.

But these efforts were like fists hitting cotton, and the centrifugal forces inside the Soviet Union were too great for anyone to save.

As for Gorbachev, he may also see the painstaking efforts of Bush Sr., but he himself failed to seize the opportunity.

In the end, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a foregone conclusion, and the elder Bush could only watch, sigh, and continue to clean up the rest of the mess.

This intersection is quite intriguing, one wants to save the country but can't, and the other wants to keep the opponent but can't.

The wheel of history is rolling forward, and no one can stop it, but the game behind this is far more complicated than winning or losing on the surface.

You say, is this another joke played by history?

epilogue

Thirty years ago, Gorbachev wanted to save the Soviet Union but destroyed it, and the United States wanted to protect its opponent but couldn't.

Looking back, who is the real director of this historical joke?

Resources:

1. Western Factors of Gorbachev's Failure of Perestroika: Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Social Sciences), No. 5, 2013, 19-25, 7 pages

2. A Review of the Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union: A Study of Historiography and History, CSSCI Peking University Core, 2010, No. 3, 16-19, 4 pages