S8 Ep256: THE COLD WAR TRAP AND GORBACHEV'S MISCALCULATION Colleague Professor Sean McMeekin. The timeline shifts to the Cold War rivalry, arguing that Soviet aggression was driven by a genuine belief—shared by the CIA—that their economic system would eventually ou

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 29 December 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

THE COLD WAR TRAP AND GORBACHEV'S MISCALCULATION Colleague Professor Sean McMeekin. The timeline shifts to the Cold War rivalry, arguing that Soviet aggression was driven by a genuine belief—shared by the CIA—that their economic system would eventually outproduce the West. The invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 became a trap, as the US applied "hard power" and economic pressure that eventually bankrupted the Soviet state. The segment characterizes Mikhail Gorbachev not as a democrat, but as the "last true believer" in communism who attempted to "fix" the system through better planning. Gorbachev failed to understand that corruption and coercion were the only things holding the Soviet economy and empire together; by trying to remove them to reinvigorate the system, he inadvertently dismantled the regime. NUMBER 7

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0:30.2	This is CBS. I on the world. I'm John Batchel, visiting with Professor Sean McMeakin.
0:35.3	His new book is to overthrow the world, the rise and fall
0:38.5	and rise of communism. It is 1956 in Moscow and Nikita Khrushchev, who has emerged as the
0:45.3	first among equals of the Pollock Borough. Stalin is dead in March of 53. There's trouble
0:51.3	with Baria, the secret police chief, and eventually the trouble is that he's complaining too much and he's murdered, executed, I believe, is a polite way to put it, as a traitor.
1:01.7	And Khrushchev becomes the center of interest outside and making a statement inside.
1:09.1	And he makes something called a secret speech,
1:11.4	which has, at this point, you'd have to say,
1:14.7	was secret from no one.
1:16.4	Because everybody immediately knew about it,
1:19.5	and it rocked the Warsaw Pact,
1:22.2	Eastern Europe that were all under the boot of the Soviets
1:26.7	and had been since 1944-45 when they were overrun at the boot of the Soviets and had been since 1944, 45 when
1:29.5	they were overrun at the end of the war.
1:32.7	So what we're looking at here is a temptation to break away from the absolute obedience
1:40.2	to Moscow.
1:41.6	It leads to disruption in Poland, in Germany, in Hungary eventually, all very
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