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Undermining “The Deal Of The Century”: The Siberian Natural Gas Pipeline & The Failure Of American Economic Pressure On The Soviet Energy Industry, Brandon T. Von Kannewurff

James Blair Historical Review

In late 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced far-reaching sanctions on a critical Soviet infrastructure project, a 3,000 mile pipeline connecting the Soviet Union to Western Europe. American allies had carefully negotiated “The Deal of the Century” with the Soviets to minimize its energy dependence on the Middle East, but the Reagan administration flouted the concerns of his allies to test the resolve of the United States’ ideological archenemy. American allies were shocked. A fracture in the democratic-capitalist alliance opened.

Reagan Victory School proponents claim these sanctions were a masterful stroke to exploit Soviet economic weakness and triumph in the Cold …