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This period is interesting because of the incorrect perceptions that dominated in the West. The US vs the USSR, two giants of roughly equal strength. Never was
by bjourne 3y ago
This period is interesting because of the incorrect perceptions that dominated in the West. The US vs the USSR, two giants of roughly equal strength. Never was that the case and the US was always much more powerful than the USSR. The view was maintained by red scare propaganda, western communists (who exaggerated the benefits of socialist economy), and "shows" the USSR put together to impress. For example, the Afghan war was a much heavier burden on the USSR than the Vietnam war on the US. One can imagine that the West currently holds similarly distorted views of the relative strength of the US vs China.
- GartzenDeHaes 3y agoDuring the Start II treaty compliance process, we also learned that much of the Soviet strategic forces were not operational. I knew someone who was on one of the inspection teams and a Soviet Strategic Forces officer involved let him look in the missile silos at some of the sites, which he wasn't supposed to do. There was standing water at the bottom of the silos. This means that the missiles were not launch ready and were not being maintained.