That is not what I said, Tom. The Soviets did everything they could to make life miserable for us, including dealing with other communist states they didn't get along with, like Cuba (see my post on Cuban Anarchism?), North Korea (They could have vetoed us in the UN, instead they walked out giving UN the excuse to fight there and put their rivals, the Red Chinese, in direct conflict with us: that was a deliberate slap at the PRC). They supported the Vietnamese against the Cambodians (while we and the PRC both supported the Cambodians because we both had a bone to pick wih VietNam. It's never been about right vs left, its been about countries playing chess on the map. How else could you explain what happened in Angola, where Cuban troops were protecting American oil fields from attacks by Maoist rebels supported by the South Africans? I happen to know a bit about that last episode because a group of conservative stockholders at the oil company I was working for at the time were very upset about how our management was cozying up to the Communist Angolan regime and they were vigorously protesting against it. Companies are like countries, they like to play chess too.

And I have never advocated anywhere, certainly not in this forum, that we needed to take a "let it be" approach to Soviet expansionism. American administrations of both parties consistently carried out that policy for half a century. It was never a Rep Vs Dem issue. You don't have to be conservative to recognize a threat to your country or the Free World, and being a liberal doesn't disqualify you from good citizenship.