Based on the passage, it can be inferred that Suny might also support the
following assertions EXCEPT:
"Egalitarian Marxism, a more human form of communism without terror or
Russians, continued to have broad appeal. But the [crushing of anti-Stalinist
uprisings of 1956 in Hungary and 1968 in Czechoslovakia left [people] feeling
bewildered, if not betrayed. What they got was 'vegetarian communism...
more goods, some travel abroad, less repression, but only the most muted
voice in politics.
Early 70s [communist] regimes looked stable, relatively prosperous
and likely to endure. But the command economy couldn't uphold the social
contract: [Soviet bloc countries] borrowed heavily from the West to maintain
an aging industrial base and a standard of living comfortable enough to
keep populations relatively quiescent. [Foreign debt] and a cycle of falling
productivity and growing discontent accelerated."
Ronald Grigor Suary, "Empire Falls: The Revelations of
1989, The Nation, 2009
.
2 points
Had the socialist economies performed better, communist governments might have
stayed in power longer.
The spread of free market capitalism and economic liberalism doomed the USSR
The public's distaste for socialism doomed the communist governments from their
beginnings.
The communist regimes were purposefully undermined by Western interference in
their economies.