Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Analysis

Of course Civil Defense was big in the USSR.
Bowser — (archived)

The Soviet Union had US offensive weapons stationed very near her borders. Missiles in Turkey, all over the place. She had a hostile China on another of her borders.

Russia had been invaded any number of times. They did have a strong Civil Defense organization and policies, much of it started during WWII.

The Soviet Union had just lost 20 million people in WWII. Her posture was basically defensive. Check the size of her navy, the number of aircraft carriers, that sort of thing. Compared to the US, she was unable to project power in any meaningful manner. All she had going for her was a retaliatory capacity. She could not have occupied the US, it would have been complete folly for her to launch a first strike. The propaganda ignored that.

The Soviet Union had much more to fear from the US than the US did the Soviet Union. We have those oceans. Can you imagine an amphibious landing operation after crossing the Pacific?

On the other hand, the US and it's allies could have launched an invasion and occupied much of the USSR.

Conservatives assume their enemies are stupid or crazy. Comes from John Wayne movies. They are not. They are at least as smart as you, sometimes smarter. They weren't going to attack. They needed to recover from WWII. (There are some gawd-awfully clever little brown folks, for instance. Ingenious bastards is what they were. After my arrogant phase they scared me - I hated 'em.)

I'm not saying the Soviets were nice people, or wished us well, or didn't compete through other countries in an effort to cause mischief. So did the US. For example, overthrowing the government of Mohammed Mossadegh and installing the Shah of Iran in a repressive regime. (And conservatives wonder why Iranians don't like the US.)

There's more to history than what is learned before high school.

Arf

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