[RedsBaron]

M2, while I obviously regard Reagan as having been a much greater president than do you, Kaplan's article is not that far off of Kissinger's analysis. Reagan by every account I've read sincerely believed the Soviet Union to be an evil empire, but he also sincerely regarded nuclear weapons to be ultimately immoral and never accepted the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction. As Beschloss speculated, had Romanov become the Soviet leader instead of Gorbachev, the Cold War would have proceeded differently; as both Beschloss and Kaplan apparently believe, had Carter or Mondale been president rather than Reagan, the Cold War would not have ended when it did.