"Do you feel the threat of Communism was a lie? Eastern Europe and was under it’s contol and China adopted the sytem. We saw Communism spread across the Atlantic and were anticipating a continuing “domino” effect. The Soviet Union’s presence in Cuba brought us to the brink ending the World as we know it."

Yes. Western Europe was under our control. The Soviet Union had lost upwards of 30 million people in WWII, and had been invaded any number of times. It wanted a buffer against further aggression, and it's military was adapted for defence, not offence. Economically the Russians had a "scorched earth" policy on their retreat to Moscow, and the Germans did the same on their retreat to Berlin. That left the country economically devastated, and they wanted no more problems.

How many aircraft carriers did it have? Those are aggressive, as noted by their right-wing description as forces for peace. The domino effect was crap. Look at Vietnam. What's happened. (And if it were a Soviet proxy, one would expect Russians all over the place.)

The US had missiles in Turkey which were as close to the USSR as those in Cuba would have been to the US. What about that? Why wouldn't they try?

"We fought a proxy war with the Soviets in Vietnam. Was it really shameful for us to try to contain Communist agression?"

That's a huge mistake to believe. The Vietnamese were fighting for their freedom against foreign aggression, in modern times against the Chinese, then the Japanese, then the French and Americans. They were armed by the Soviets, Chinese, and various European countries much the way the US armed the Afghans against the Soviets. It was not a proxy war against the Soviets or anyone else. They would have gladly fought the Soviets if they had tried to take over the country.

The elections called by treaty regarding unification in 1954 were called off by the US and South Vietnam because they knew the North would win, both in the North and the South.

The bombing of Laos, whether you like it or not, was against a neutral country. Even so, the Ho Chi Minh trail might have been a legitimate target but not for twice as many bombs as dropped on Germany in WWII. You can't see the difference between a firecracker and an A-bomb, I realize, and there is. If one is going to attack a neutral country one should be SURE of one's targets. Novel idea, eh? Just one more bit of liberal nonsense. Civilians like to live as much as the next guy, even if they are brown.

I would have bet no one would even try to justify dropping that many bombs on a neutral country without clear targets, and I would have been wrong.

Remember Eisenhower warning against the "military-industrial complex"? Well, we didn't listen, some listened, I guess, to the propaganda, and still believe it, but as a nation our will was usurped by those folks and still is. And will be as long as we last. Conservatives have their dream - perpetual war.

Arf