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5 Ways the Soviet Union Could Have Won the Cold War (Or at Least Survived It)
The National Interest ^ | December 24, 2016 | Tom Nichols

Posted on 12/24/2016 7:58:23 AM PST by Leaning Right

As we look back tomorrow at the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, an important question should be raised: could the USSR actually have won the Cold War?

Or maybe a better question: at least survived?

That was something we asked Professor Tom Nichols of the U.S. Naval War College and Harvard University back in 2014.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: coldwar; communists; cpua; reaganlegacy; sovietunion; ussr; worldwar3; worldwariii
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To: Leaning Right

Senator Joe McCarthy doesn’t flush all the commies out of the State Department and other agencies


21 posted on 12/24/2016 8:38:27 AM PST by uncbob
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To: Gaffer

Hillary lost. Gore lost.

But we can have a national precinct by precinct recount if you really think your guys will win. It should only take about 2 years.


22 posted on 12/24/2016 8:38:38 AM PST by a fool in paradise (The COM-Left is saddened by the death of the Communist dictator Fidel Castro. No surprise there.)
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To: Leaning Right

“But we had best think about them, because we once again face enemies overseas dedicated to the destruction of our ideas and values.”

The enemies are here, they are ingrained in our academic system (from primary school on up through graduate school), the media, and government (including unelected offices). They are quite dedicated to the destruction of our ideas and values.


23 posted on 12/24/2016 8:40:33 AM PST by a fool in paradise (The COM-Left is saddened by the death of the Communist dictator Fidel Castro. No surprise there.)
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To: SolidWood
A somewhat more plausible variation would be Stalin killed/toppled in a Coup before WW2.

The whole point of the purges was to prevent any possibility of that happening. The only time Stalin really feared the real possibility of a coup was in early July, 1941. After the opening catastrophes of Operation Barbarossa, he retreated to his dacha and went incommunicado for a few days. Molotov headed up a group of Politburo members to go talk to him. When they entered the dacha, Stalin had an apprehensive look that he expected they were there to arrest him. Instead, they were there to grovel and plead that he come out of hiding and lead his country.

There was no other time before or after when a coup could have happened. The purges were so effective that the only time the opportunity arose, Stalin had so cowed the eunuchs around him that the thought of a coup never occurred to them.

24 posted on 12/24/2016 8:41:27 AM PST by henkster
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To: HLPhat

The only reason such Jesuit/Marxist doctrined outfits are able to survive now is because the economy is kept afloat by non Jesuit/Marxist doctrined entities and businesses.

Communism is fail. The only time and place communism in any form seems to not fail is when it is supported by other non-fail structures.


25 posted on 12/24/2016 8:46:32 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: a fool in paradise

I’d rather have a count-by-count indictment of Hillary followed by a trial, conviction and actual imprisonment - Just like Martha Stewart. If it was good enough for Martha, it’s good enough for Hillary!

As Martha would say, “It’s a Good Thing!”


26 posted on 12/24/2016 8:46:52 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Leaning Right
because the USSR was based on a lie at its very foundation

For Posterity:

The first thing to know about communism is that it is a pack of lies. The second thing to know about communism is that communists are liars. Symbiotic relationship.

27 posted on 12/24/2016 8:47:25 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Enforce the Law. Build the Wall.)
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To: HLPhat
Don't get sucked into the delusional arms race for the benefit of the enterprise General/President Eisenhower tried to warn Americans about:

Yet another problem the USSR had, which was part of being the USSR. From an economic perspective, they never stopped fighting World War 2. The tractor factories they evacuated to the Urals ahead of the advancing Germans were converted to tank production to win the war. After they won the war, they never converted them back.

28 posted on 12/24/2016 8:49:54 AM PST by henkster
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To: HLPhat
including the 2nd largest (employee "owned") bank in Colorado

Which bank is it?

29 posted on 12/24/2016 8:54:11 AM PST by xone
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To: xone

How many employee owned banks are there in Colorado?


30 posted on 12/24/2016 8:55:40 AM PST by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Grimmy

>>The only reason such Jesuit/Marxist doctrined outfits
>>are able to survive now is because the economy is
>>kept afloat by non Jesuit/Marxist doctrined entities
>>and businesses

And yet, the Jesuits have been doing what they do since at least...

http://www.google.com/#q=Reductions+Paraguay+Beautiful

BTW, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Reductions of Paraguay had... a central bank.

“From each according to their ability; to each according to their need”.

Observe how the “need” of the revolutionary leaders in the farmhouse for milk, apples, and whiskey, seemed to outweigh their ability to actually produce anything...


31 posted on 12/24/2016 9:01:09 AM PST by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Leaning Right
The absence of a well defined global adversary, like the one the old USSR provided the west during the post WWII era ending in the 1990's, has allowed the globalist NWO cabal to run rough shod over borders in an attempt to make the world economy itself global, post political and state-less. This has caused the west to de industrialize and push it towards the left politically. It is ironic that now if Russia and China so desired, together they could out produce the west in both military and consumer goods. A Sino-Russo pact would be devastating.

A de industrialized USA is helpless in the long run.

32 posted on 12/24/2016 9:01:16 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: HLPhat

They could have survived if they didn’t go expansionist and capture territory. Their message was simple enough that an idiot could buy into it as we see today. They infiltrated all the right institutions. What killed the Soviet Union was their financial foray into military might. The pen is mightier then the sword, but they focused on the sword.


33 posted on 12/24/2016 9:02:34 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Too. Much. Winning.)
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To: Leaning Right
I don't believe that Trotsky, or Kirov or Bukharin could have saved the Soviet Union, because the USSR was based on a lie at its very foundation.

Red China is based on the same lie, and it's thriving.

34 posted on 12/24/2016 9:05:57 AM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: HLPhat

I don’t know, that is why I asked for the bank name.


35 posted on 12/24/2016 9:13:39 AM PST by xone
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To: EQAndyBuzz

They could never have survived; the economic strain always breaks these states. Long before the USSR collapsed, those that escaped described issues with productivity that are inevitable when private property and economic advancement are restricted or forbidden. It is a basic flaw that rears its head in Cuba and Venezuela today; the old adage “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us” still applies.

The companies and people in the US that move from one state to another to escape larcenous taxes would stop working altogether if there weren’t more business- and taxpayer-friendly states.


36 posted on 12/24/2016 9:28:41 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
>>What killed the Soviet Union was their financial foray into military might.

Yep.

But I wonder if that whole "we'll support Germany if the Russians are winning; and Russia if Germany is winning" strategy from the NyLon empire -- who were financing and goading both sides back circa 1933... might've contributed to such a state of insecurity?

As I recall, that was the gist of some of the documents included in the "secret treaties" presentation making the rounds back circa 2004 at the Nixon Library -- where this reference was on display:

Would Russia have made their "financial foray into military might." - if...

 "I was against it on two counts. First, the Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing. Second, I hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon.


...it hadn't been goaded into doing so?

37 posted on 12/24/2016 9:30:28 AM PST by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: xone

They know who they are.


38 posted on 12/24/2016 9:39:52 AM PST by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Leaning Right

The latest re-invention of commiescumism is the SJW/PCist ineptocracy.


39 posted on 12/24/2016 9:41:14 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Leaning Right
I thought the Soviet Union did win the Cold War? They ended up capturing most of the Western Mainstream Media and Western government departments including state education.
Their victory hasn't been complete, of course, viz Reagan, Putin, and now Trump (thank heavens).
40 posted on 12/24/2016 9:42:50 AM PST by Mr Radical (In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act)
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