The Cold War basically prevented some internal conflict within the Communist Bloc by providing an external menace and scapegoat. That's an interesting theory,

The Cold War basically prevented some internal conflict within the Communist Bloc by providing an external menace and scapegoat. That's an interesting theory, but I'm not sure I can agree with it. Before the Sino-Soviet split, the communist world was really just one state, the Soviet union and everybody else was but a satellite. better anti-Communist strategy would have been for the non-Communist nations to offer generous asylum/refugee-based immigration programs That is more or less exactly what West Germany did with refugees from East Germany. It was extremely successful, until the East build the wall and made fleeing next to impossible.