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2026-04-05T23:08:56+00:00

The date was August 11, 1984 and the United States and the Soviet Union were still in the midst of the Cold War with the latter nation threatening the Middle East, entrenched in a years long invasion of Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan was preparing for a scheduled radio address from his Rancho del Cielo vacation home outside Santa Barbara. Prior to the address going live, Reagan conducted a sound test by joking with those present about "outlawing and bombing Russia." The short recorded excerpt was quickly leaked by American media. In the Soviet Union, the off-hand (or as some would later suggest, slyly intentional) comment created nothing short of panic. The Soviet government, Pravda, Izvestia, and TASS all denounced Reagan's words as "unprecedentedly hostile" evidence of the United States' insincerity in trying to improve SovietAmerican relations. Democrats too, headed by then Democratic candidate for President Walter Mondale, pounced on Reagan's words, with Mondale saying, "A President has to be very, very careful with his words." Unmoved, 87 days later, the American people would re-elect Reagan with an astounding 525 electoral votes. Shortly after Reagan's second term would end, the Berlin Wall would come down and the Soviet Union would collapse. In a world desperate for peace, the craziest of words had played a role in getting the world to that point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_begin_bombing_in_five_minutes

Post removed Sun Apr 5, 2026, 07:08 PM 11 hrs ago

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Post removed (Original Post) Post removed 11 hrs ago OP

Reagan hagiography? dpibel 9 hrs ago #1

dpibel

(3,967 posts)

1. Reagan hagiography?

Reply to Post removed (Original post)

Sun Apr 5, 2026, 08:40 PM

9 hrs ago

Are you aware where you are posting?

Incidentally, that's not even an example of the madman theory.

And the idea that those words are what cause the fall of the Soviet Union is utterly fatuous.

But I congratulate you on another real good story!!!1!1!!