Zim: "My personal feeling (and I admit that might be wrong) is that Russia's (USSR actually) losses in Afghanistan contributed to the implosion of the USSR."
I think you are VERY right. In the Russian metros, I encountered a lot of amputees and other derelicts from the Afghan wars. The emotional gap between the ex-soldiers and the civilians felt like an open wound still weeping. We saw some of that in some of our Vietnam veterans, but in the early 2000's Russia didn't have enough wealth to provide any sort of social safety net any more. Or maybe the civilians simply felt too much of the wound themselves and didn't want to be reminded.
Zim: "Another, and bigger factor in the implosion was the Arms Race Reagan pushed the Soviets into."
I suspect so.
Zim: "As for Vietnam - America was NOT impoverished by it. I don't believe we were 'vastly demoralized' and I suspect it more likely that the rest of the world didn't care...But the American economy was BIG enough and robust enough we could afford it."
Here I think you are VERY much mistaken. Evidence? A mountain of evidence. I point you to http://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
The US went financially bankrupt in 1971, Zim, or close enough that only a deal with the devil stopped catastrophic and immediate public collapse. Do you remember when Nixon closed the gold window to the rest of the world? Its significance was mostly downplayed in the nightly news, but THAT WAS A FORMAL DECLARATION TO THE GOVERNMENTS AND BANKERS OF THE WORLD THAT THE US WAS INSOLVENT.
You need to study up on Bretton Woods, Zim, if you want to understand the news behind the news. Reading The Creature From Jekyll Island, as De suggests, would fast track you. Remember the "one worker family" of the 1950s and 1960s? Where did it go? Did you swallow the propaganda about how "women were liberated" from having to stay at home and now WANTED to work? The truth is, that before 1971 one salary was more than enough to provide the good life...and afterward it wasn't. Now even both parents working usually isn't enough to buy a house and send the kids to college. And retirement pensions so most people could retire comfortably by age 65? Where did THOSE go? There were no credit cards in the 1960s; so almost nobody was deeply in debt. Smoke and mirrors. Poof! All gone!
Here is the one-minute version of what went down to FORCE Nixon to "close the international gold window": Effectively all the world's gold had been entrusted to the US for "safe keeping" during and after WW2. The Gold belonged to THEM, not to us -- you need to understand that. Although US citizens were not allowed to turn in dollars for gold, the governments of the world were allowed to do that. They were PROMISED the USD was "good as gold". They were promised they could get their gold back on demand any time they presented US dollars and made the request.
But the US had not only spent its own gold, it had also spent most of the gold it was supposed to be keeping safe for many governments. It had STOLEN the wealth of the world, Zim, in order to fund its "forever wars", its various welfare programs, its living beyond its means, and ...doubtless...a lot of simply criminal theft.
Anyway, THAT is what happened in 1971: the US went into a sort of "Chapter 11" and had to make deals with the Saudis and many other parties in order to keep the dirty secret quiet and not panic the sheeple. The recessions, 20%+ inflation, and "energy crises" which followed were pretty awful -- and would have been much worse all around the world if not for the backroom deals.
That's the 1 minute version, Zim. The graphs on that website show how all the wealth had to be STOLEN from average US citizens from that point on to today, and beyond, to pay the interest on the credit cards the US had to use in 1971. We never recovered. We never will. We used to be the world's greatest Creditor nation. Now we are the world's biggest DEBTOR nation -- the biggest in all human history. And the devils WILL be paid, Zim...if they have to eat your grandchildren alive, harvest their organs, or worse. The devils will be repaid.
Maybe you thought you lived in "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave", like I did? That we fought endless wars "for Democracy" because we are "the good guys"?
Nothing is quite what we thought. I'm wondering what we still don't know; what shoe or shoes have yet to drop?
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