Thomas Seay:
Many on the American Right claim that it was Reagan's militaristic pressure, increased military spending (discussion of Star Wars etc), etc. that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. The thinking goes that the Soviet Union had to spend more on military spending, couldnt afford it and this exacerbated contradictions in the Soviet Union, leading to its demise.
Now if I am not wrong the Soviet Union was actually spending relatively less on the military around that time and that Gorbachev had decided, upon the advice of top scientists, that the SU should not even compete with Star Wars.
--- As far as I know, the USSR's one and only response to Star Wars was to commission the Topol-M "Satan" ICBM, which is hardened, and the first one of which came on-line I think in 1998.
The USSR never had more than 15,000 troops in Afghanistan at any given moment.
The USSR fell because of gross capital misallocation and because the authorities didn't understand the nationalities issue, not because of Reaganite bullying. Anyway, since the US and USSR were practically allies in 1991, and since Bush I was against the breakup of the USSR, it seems like a pretty stupid thing for them to celebrate.