ABSTRACT
The Cold War, it was often said, was a struggle not merely between states but between incompatible social and political systems. There was as a result no issue of Western policy more important, more persistent or more controversial than whether external influences might alter the internal evolution of Soviet communism. The Brezhnev regime had come into being in 1964 on a platform that elevated stability over Khrushchevian impulsive-ness. The rigidity of the Soviet system made it more likely that pressure would lead to crisis. In the first half of the 1980s, then, Western contentiousness provided the right backdrop for Soviet rethinking. By contrast, the congeniality of the second half of the decade created a setting in which reforms steadily expanded and eventually became uncontrollable. Mikhail Gorbachev was clearly helped to do his duty by the reduction of East-West tensions. According to Brezhnev, detente promoted the consolidation of socialism, and he was right.
