How would you have fought the Cold War?

[Jredbaron96]

I am not required to give you a reason

Good, cause you haven't.

 

[Fledermaus]

More support to Anti Moscow arm resistance in 40-50s , speed up the high tech arm race , allow Moscow to nuke China like they wanted in 70s

Nuke China?

How many civilians do you want to have died?

Tens of millions?

 

[Questerr]

So the Cold War started during the last days of WWII when America realized that the Soviet Union was taking countries and had no intention of setting them free.

It ended in 1989 or so.

We won. We're still here and the Soviets are all gone.

So put on your general's hat and tell use how you would've fought the Cold War differently.



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Cancelled U-2 flights over the Soviet Union in the run up to the Paris Summit in 1960.

 

[Napoleon]

So the Cold War started during the last days of WWII when America realized that the Soviet Union was taking countries and had no intention of setting them free.

It ended in 1989 or so.

We won. We're still here and the Soviets are all gone.

So put on your general's hat and tell use how you would've fought the Cold War differently.



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It wasn’t exactly a surprise. The Allies had written agreements with Stalin about carving up Europe after the war ended. There was, for example, the now famous but then top secret Percentages Agreement between Churchill and Stalin.

How would I have fought the Cold War? I wouldn’t have because it was completely unnecessary chest pounding that threatened the end of Western Civilization.

 

[Tigerace117]

It wasn’t exactly a surprise. The Allies had written agreements with Stalin about carving up Europe after the war ended. There was, for example, the now famous but then top secret Percentages Agreement between Churchill and Stalin.

How would I have fought the Cold War? I wouldn’t have because it was completely unnecessary chest pounding that threatened the end of Western Civilization.

Opposing the Soviets was anything but “unnecessary”.

 

[Napoleon]

Opposing the Soviets was anything but “unnecessary”.

For what reason? And btw, the Cold War was less about opposing the Soviets than it was about opposing communism more broadly and that mindset led to some pretty ugly policies and practices by the US both at home and abroad.

 

[Tigerace117]

For what reason? And btw, the Cold War was less about opposing the Soviet’s as it was about opposing communism and that mindset led to some pretty ugly policies and practices by the US both at home and abroad.

Because they were an aggressively ideologically(and for many years territorially) expansionist regime which was responsible for killing vast numbers of their own people. Stalin would have been ecstatic if the US tried to bury its head in the sand, but it wouldn’t have led to him stopping his plans. If anything, America retreating back into isolationism would have accelerated them.

None of which remotely compare to the kind of atrocities the USSR inflicted on its subjects.

 

[Napoleon]

Because they were an aggressively ideologically(and for many years territorially) expansionist regime which was responsible for killing vast numbers of their own people. Stalin would have been ecstatic if the US tried to bury its head in the sand, but it wouldn’t have led to him stopping his plans. If anything, America retreating back into isolationism would have accelerated them.

None of which remotely compare to the kind of atrocities the USSR inflicted on its subjects.

The Cold War wasn’t about Stalin or the USSR. It was always about communism more broadly and started with American intervention in the Greek Civil War to aid an undemocratic and brutal regime against its own people. And that was a common theme for decades to follow.

 

[Tigerace117]

The Cold War wasn’t about Stalin or the USSR. It was always about communism more broadly and started with American intervention in the Greek Civil War to aid an undemocratic and brutal regime against its own people. And that was a common theme for decades to follow.

The Cold War certainly was about opposing communist aggression, which was spearheaded by Stalin and the USSR.

It’s hilarious watching a colonial apologist moan about “undemocratic and brutal regimes”(and no, actually the Greek civil war started well before there was actually a genuine Greek government back in power).

 

[Court Jester]

So put on your general's hat and tell use how you would've fought the Cold War differently.

After the Soviet Union crumbled I would have pivoted and then retracted all of our economic trade which began after Nixon in China. And redirected our economic focus on improving Mexico and Central America. So, not so much "cold war" as a cold shoulder to China, an adversary way more diabolical than the Russian communists were ever capable of being.

 

[Napoleon]

The Cold War certainly was about opposing communist aggression, which was spearheaded by Stalin and the USSR.

It’s hilarious watching a colonial apologist moan about “undemocratic and brutal regimes”(and no, actually the Greek civil war started well before there was actually a genuine Greek government back in power).

There were actually three different governments vying for control at the time and the conflict made for strange and abominable bedfellows. The United States chose to intervene on the side of a coalition of Nazi collaborators and the Royalist government in the mainland.

 

[HK.227]

So put on your general's hat and tell use how you would've fought the Cold War differently..

I wouldn't.
A hot war was too risky, so surreptiously undermining them from within was probably the best option.
Lower their living standards. Compromise their self-worth. Damage their economy. Make them hate the system and themselves.
And make sure to have an easily digestible alternative ready, so they don't come up with one of their own.

 

[swing_voter]

I wouldn't.
A hot war was too risky, so surreptiously undermining them from within was probably the best option.
Lower their living standards. Compromise their self-worth. Damage their economy. Make them hate the system and themselves.
And make sure to have an easily digestible alternative ready, so they don't come up with one of their own.

You're posts are always insightful.


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[Oozlefinch]

So the Cold War started during the last days of WWII when America realized that the Soviet Union was taking countries and had no intention of setting them free.

Actually, it did not. It started over 2 years later.

Most see it as starting when the Soviets refused to allow the parts of Germany they occupied along with other territories they occupied to join the Marshal Plan, or to allow them to have greater autonomy as the other nations were allowing the areas they occupied. And that only increased as Stalin started to crack down even harder on Soviet occupied territory.