I give credit to the good Senator Charlie Wilson from Texas for breaking the Soviets backs personally. Yes I know exactly who and what Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge did. Fighting proxy wars to stop communism was absurd at best. Honestly the only two proxy wars we conducted successfully were the war in Korea, and the funding of the Mujahideen. As long as the principle of MAD (mutually assured destruction) was in place the cold war would have stayed cold. The way the Soviet Union went about conducting itself economically was unsustainable at best and disastrous at worst. The US used the Soviet Union as the bogey man for decades it was sad. I know exactly what the domino effect was as well and to put it frankly why would it matter to the US economically or politically if a bunch of backwater third world Asian countries "fell" into Communism.
Look at every "communist" country left in the world they are only communist in make (with the exception of North Korea those people are crazy). Communism is not nor will it ever be a sustainable form of government and I bet my last dollar the US government has known that all along. The old cold war maxim of giving thirld world countries democracy and freedom was insane, the people of those countries have to want it for themselves, not have it forced upon them. If you need an example look at Iraq, or better yet and more relevant South Vietnam.
