> What you are saying has no basis in fact Which parts? That the Soviets feared a NATO first strike, or at least deemed it a real enough possibility to prepare

> What you are saying has no basis in fact Which parts? That the Soviets feared a NATO first strike, or at least deemed it a real enough possibility to prepare for it, is true (see: "Seven Days to the River Rhine"). That they Cuban missile crisis was a consequence of the US placing missiles in Turkey is fact. That the Soviets were fearful of the West and paranoid about signs of their interference is fact. That Finland was left alone because of its neutrality is fact. And the list goes on. PS: Le Carré wrote fiction but also had real insight into the intelligence world, having worked in it. And what his fiction states is absolutely true: the West, in its eagerness to combat communism, supported, aided and propped up all sorts of ruthless murderers and dictators as long as they declared themselves anticommunists.