Sputnik did!
Sarah Palin, in an interview with Fox News' Greta van Susteren, was asked about the President's reference to the Sputnik era of space exploration. Exuding confidence, with her usual authoritarian air, the Wacko of Wasilla proceeded to identify the high costs of space exploration as the factor that brought down the economy of the USSR and caused its collapse.
Of course that is contrary to the usual doctrine on the downfall of the USSR, namely that Reagan, by vastly expanding our military, drove the USSR to spend more to catch up than they could afford. Others contend that this was not the case, that the heavy defense spending in the Reagan era was based on the Pentagon's grossly exaggerated estimates of Soviet capabilities. (See Thomas Gervasi "Soviet Military Power")and that the Soviet collapse would have happened anyway. See also http://www.registan.net/index....viet-union-collapse/
Whatever the cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union, it clearly was NOT the space race. Sputnik went up in 1957! The final collapse of the USSR did not happen until over 30 years later.
Palin's perky and confident "answer" was wrong, incorrect, inane, goofy, and otherwise in the style of Sarah Palin!
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