How JR Won the Cold War?

"It was the booze-and-sex-soaked caricature of free enterprise and executive lifestyles that proved irresistible not just to stagflation-weary Americans, but viewers from France to the Soviet Union to Ceausescu's Romania...

"Viewers in the nearly 100 countries that gobbled up the show, including in the Warsaw Pact nations, came to believe that they, too, deserved cars as big as boats and a swimming pool the size of a small mansion."

Hat tip to Instapundit. I know from personal experience what the WaPo says is true. I remember being amazed at how my relatives back in Hungary were all very much aware of this TV show and believed that everyone lived like JR and the streets were flowing with gold.

Source: By Ideal Investment Corner