I consider General George Patton as one of the most visionary men in the USA whose opinions about the Communists were totally ignored by the politicians ( under both the FDR and Truman administration ).
After he helped crushed the Nazis, Patton was quick to assert the Soviet Union would cease to be an ally of the United States and warned about their duplicity.
He was concerned that some 25,000 American POWs had been liberated from POW camps by the Soviets, but never returned to the US.
In fact, he urged his superiors to evict the Soviets from central and eastern Europe. Patton thought that the Red Army was weak, under-supplied, and vulnerable, and the United States should act on these weaknesses before the Soviets could consolidate their position.
In this regard, he told then-Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson that the “point system” being used to demobilize Third Army troops was destroying it and creating a vacuum that the Soviets would exploit. “Mr. Secretary, for God’s sake, when you go home, stop this point system; stop breaking up these armies, Let’s keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to these people, the Soviets. This is the only language they understand.”
Asked by Patterson—who became Secretary of War a few months later—what he would do, Patton replied: “I would have you tell the Red Army where their border is, and give them a limited time to get back across. Warn them that if they fail to do so, we will push them back across it.”
Needless to say, he was totally ignored ( in fact, asked to shut up ), and the rest is history.
Unfortunately, men like Patton are hard to come by even in today’s military.
It is possible to make an argument that picking a fight with Stalin in late 1945 made military sense.
It is not possible to make a case that the American people would have supported such a war after 4 years of pro-Soviet propaganda. Since ours is a democratic society, a war cannot be fought without the people’s support.
Not to mention all those pesky Constitutional issues.