re: #80 engineer dog

The revanchists’ fantasy history is so contorted…. they really have to re-make most of the key players to fit the narrative.

The reality of the “Cold War” is very complex. The US was already cool towards the young USSR before WWII. Only because the USSR ended up on the winning side of WWII were they able to acquire influence/control over a decent chunk of eastern Europe, something Stalin could never have done on his own without Germany/WWII destroying most European nations first.

Thus the US had a competitor immediately post WWII, though the power balance was very unequal. It took the USSR developing nuclear weapons for there to be a real “cold war”.

Right now I’m watching “Panic In The Year Zero!!” (only half way through - NO SPOILERS!), one of a plethora of nuclear weapon fear induced movies that attempted to reconcile what was happening in the depths of the Cold War. An aspect of the Cold War often overlooked is that we were afraid of our own power as well as others’.

I give Reagan credit for not giving up what FDR and Truman started (in determining that ultimately the USSR had to be defeated), but he was just the caboose in a long train.