> Indeed, generally, domestic opinion is not the most relevant predictor of what a country will do abroad, it's quite minor as most people have little informati

> Indeed, generally, domestic opinion is not the most relevant predictor of what a country will do abroad, it's quite minor as most people have little information about foreign policy Public opinion (and draft, and casualties) did influence US actions quite a bit in the Vietnam era. But that's not so relevant, because at its peak the cold war was a complex moral situation in which the path didn't matter as much as the goals. In the 70s, the NATO and Soviets were fielding 40,000 nukes and marking the world into two camps. But it'd be a folly to paint them both with the same brush - a world in which the Soviets dominated would be quite unpleasant to live in.