It is not rewriting history, it is attributing the proper cause with the proper effect.
This guy nails it. Reagan got way to much credit and the proper cause was not properly attributed.
http://history.stackexchange.com/que...rop-oil-prices
This is almost more of an economics question.
The thing is, Oil prices at the time had a much more drastic effect on the US economy than the Soviet one, so you don't really have to look outside of US borders for reasons.
Rising Oil prices were almost single-handedly responsible for getting Regan elected. When oil prices go up, the price of everything in the USA rises due to the vast distances involved in shipping things around our continent. This caused a never-before-noticed effect in the USA economy which they had to invent a new word for: stagflation. Normally unemployment and inflation vary inversely to each other. Eg: if a recession happens, people lose jobs, but inflation drops too. During an economic boom, the opposite happens.
However, during the Carter administration there was a big Oil production slowdown, and the result was both inflation and unemployment got worse. The government didn't much know what to do about this, because their typical solution for one would make the other worse.
Regan got elected because of this, so quite sensibly it was a very high priority of his to stop the Oil slowdown. USSR or no, he'd really like to be re-elected.
I know there's a tendency now to grasp whatever straws available to paint Regan as the cunning genius who brought down the USSR. Having lived through it myself (and watched the guy's press conferences and speeches), I'll tell you it was much more like living through a live action Mr. Magoo cartoon. He may still deserve the credit, but the guy was just trying to drive his car...
Originally Posted by WTF
Oh, great! You're back to quoting clueless libtard revisionists! This one is a lulu!
You cherry-picked a comment by an unidentified contributor to a history website? Seriously? The guy can't even spell Reagan correctly. And almost everything he says is contradicted by the graph (see below) that accompanies your link!
Yeah, he nailed it, fagboy. Just like your starfish was nailed by a pack of trannies last night!
For the record, oil prices – both then and now – impact the Russian economy much more than the US economy. That's a fact. Their economy is much smaller and oil/energy is a much larger component of GDP. Both then and now.
Now look at your graph and tell us where is that "big oil production slowdown" under Carter (1976-80)? Hmmm... No slowdown in the US. No slowdown in Saudi Arabia. No slowdown in Russia.
Oh wait - it's all because of Iran, isn't it?
Yeah, rising oil prices helped Reagan win in 1980.... and why were they rising? Because of Jimmy Carter's foreign policy incompetence!
After he persuaded the Shah to flee the Peacock Throne and let the mullahs take our diplomats hostage, Iranian output fell by over 3 million barrels per day! Global oil markets and traders reacted accordingly. Reduced supplies = higher prices.
After Reagan took office and lifted domestic crude price controls, the markets stabilized and oil prices started dropping again.