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The Soviet Union was for the majority of the cold war and before on the receiving end of the aggression. For the most part it reacted to existential threats, li
by orbifold 12y ago
The Soviet Union was for the majority of the cold war and before on the receiving end of the aggression. For the most part it reacted to existential threats, like in the case of the Cuba missile crisis, which was preceded by the US placing mid-range missiles in Italy and Turkey. In most of the proxy conflicts each side behaved in approximately equally despicable ways, in most cases the US backed dictatorships, like Suharto in Indonesia murdered hundreds of thousands.
There also is no evidence that the Soviet Union ever intended to use nuclear weapons as an offensive measure, whereas the US toyed with the thought on multiple occasions (Cuba crisis, Korean war).
- emp_zealoth 12y agoRight, because on the soviet side of iron curtain they weren't extensively training for an attack at all Also, soviets were never heavily investing into first strike capability, both nuclear and conventional So much sarcasm. Please don't revision history
- orbifold 12y agoThey did train for fighting back in case of an "imperial aggression". Their strategy was to push back any offensive with overwhelming conventional force (massive amounts of tanks). See for example here: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Detail/?lng=en&id=107840 http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Detail/?lng=... Pretty much all their nuclear arsenal was deployed in a way that ensured excellent retaliation potential (mobile ICBM launchers etc.), their nuclear subs etc.