"Ordinary people" made it happen (Hungarian/Polish/German examples)
Gorbachev Foundation: what does it all mean?
Significance is different the farther away we move from the events
People make their own history
Departure from determinism - hot wars
Pre-1945, powers fought wars all the time
Post-1945, wars were between superpowers and smaller powers
Never a full-scale war between US, SU, and allies
Oppenheimer had predicted use of atomic weapons in a future major war (1946)
Technological/Intelligence breakthroughs (satellites, reconnaissance, etc.) helped get rid of major wars - no element of surprise
Only interpretation of intelligence is surprising/failing
Discrediting of dictatorships
Historical currents turned against communism, hard to stop
Orwell had predicted/feared/was correct about the way the world worked after 1984
Communism failed to deliver
Globalization of democratization - number of democracies 5x during 1950-2000
Policy choices, outperformed autocracies in raising living standards
Only democracy confers legitimacy
No trials for crimes against humanity - Pol Pot had executed 1/5 of his people, and died alone in Thailand
It could have been worse - most of us survived
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