The point I was making was that the people who lived under it were not that unhappy about things.

And, their view of the United States and it's constititution was exactly like yours is of theirs. Both sides had been subjected to relentless propaganda, and the people believed it. Neither side was as bad as the other painted it, nor as good as they painted themselves.

Certainly the Soviet Union was poor. And they were extremely concerned about "national security". They had been invaded countless times over the centuries, and were getting a bit sensitive about it. The US had troops and missiles on their borders, something they didn't have with the US.

They had just lost 20 million people in WWII. 20,000,000 people. That's a lot.

They threw people, a lot of people, in the slam for "national security" reasons. Because, like Cheney, they confused their political agenda with the country itself. To criticize Stalin was to criticize the country, much as Cheney thinks to criticize Bush is to criticize the country, even when done by representatives elected to oversee things.

Their armed forces were primarily of a defensive nature because of their experiences. The didn't have an aircraft carrier to "project power" until late in the game, and then only with fairly low-performance Harrier-like planes. As far as I know, they didn't even commission one. They weren't that concerned with "projecting power". We weren't told that here.

Their international adventurism was matched only by the US international adventurism. Each side took the opportunities which came along to increase their sphere of influence and bedevil the other side.

It's amusing that the US got entangled in the Vietnam war while trying to make a point about communism. It wasn't about communism.

I read an article by a US traveller who was treated well in Vietnam. He asked why. The Vietnamese host said that they fought the Chinese for hundreds of years, the French for 40, and the US for only 10.

Theirs was a war of independence, not for communist expansion. The Vietnamese didn't like the Chinese, wouldn't have liked the Russians, either. And, like many fights I've never been in, since they wanted it more they won. (I never really did get into it. The other guy usually wanted it more.)

At any rate, you may not believe it, may not like it, and that's the Soviet Constitution. And, believe it or not, they can paint the same picture of the US that you do of them.

Arf