The Cold War: A New History

by John Lewis Gaddis

“It doesn’t matter if the cat is white or black,” Deng Xiaoping liked to say, “so long as it catches mice.”

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Gorbachev acknowledged his failure. “The Achilles heel of socialism was the inability to link the socialist goal with the provision of incentives for efficient labor and the encouragement of initiative on the part of individuals. It became clear in practice that a market provides such incentives best of all.”