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 ...
1938: Stalin doesn’t kill all the smart Communists
1947: Truman loses his nerve
1976: Operation RED DAWN
1979: Lenin stays out of the jungles
1988: The China Syndrome
Easy. Jimmy Carter wins instead of Ronald Reagan.
Imo, the only hope Soviet Union had to exist intact for the long haul was to not be communist in the first place.
The entire ideology is contrary to human nature and has always failed because it is a concept that can not succeed.
The author of the article agrees with you. From the article:
“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. We can all be glad that history, and maybe a dash of divine providence, obviated any of the alternate paths here. But we had best think about them, because we once again face enemies overseas dedicated to the destruction of our ideas and values.”
An interesting ‘what if’ would be FDR serving a full 4th term and perhaps Henry Wallace (a flaming Red) succeeding him.
This would have meant an extremrly pro-Soviet US foreign policy after WW2. Truman turned fully against Stalin in 1947... also thanks to men like George Kennan. FDR snd Wallace would have helped Stalin spread his red Empire in even more countries and barely contained him. Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy and also France were quite at risk back then.
Stopped reading right there. This premise violates "henkster's Law of Alternate History." Henkster's Law states that an alternate history is not valid if it requires people or nations to act substantially out of character. In this scenario, it requires Stalin to not be Stalin. Therefore, it isn't valid.
Who’s to say they didn’t? After all, they symbolically voted themselves out of existence in 1991, which isn’t the same as being conquered and communism extirpated. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is still the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia; there are other far-left parties in the Duma such as “A Just Russia” (social democrats, as the precursor to the CPSU was under Lenin) and “Communists of Russia”.
Never mind the radical changes that have happened right here in the USA, all due to politicians filled with doctrine straight out of the USSR’s Kremlin.
There are no smart Communists.
They would have survived if we had not stopped subsidizing them.
I think the more interesting question was whether the American Republic could survive winning the cold war. Under Clinton/Bush/Obama, we nearly didn't and another Clinton administration would have ended it.
The path down-hill started with Clinton and Algores "Reinventing Government" which was the start of the effort to privatize government operations - and the bottm feeders showed up in D.C. pretty quickly to try to buy off pieces at 3 cents on the dollar. BushII/Cheney just continued that trend with our "private" war in the Middle East and DHS and all of its contractors. The result - a swath of highrises around the D.C. Beltway to house the corrupt cronies when they are not at home in their McClean VA and Potomac MD mansions.
Now we are on a path to recovery. But we have to DTS. Countries always rot from the inside out. We were in a race to the bottom with the Soviet Union. They augered in first.
Can’t disagree with the author on that.
Which is why I get so mudder frickin’ exasperated at normies who can’t pull their heads out of their own tail-pipes long enough to see the mortal danger to themselves and all they hold dear that is growing up all around them.
LOL. That's because the Russian government auctioned off the name to a small obscure party, which then became a big party because of the name.
A somewhat more plausible variation would be Stalin killed/toppled in a Coup before WW2.
Funny thing is there are corporate collectives in the USA today, including the 2nd largest (employee "owned") bank in Colorado, that essentially operate under Jesuit/Marxist doctrine.
The easiest way for Soviet Union to survive?
Simple:
Don't get sucked into the delusional arms race for the benefit of the enterprise General/President Eisenhower tried to warn Americans about:
Not have started it...
It’s comforting that we can rely on you to enforce your very sensible and important Law. You’re our Consistency Sheriff.
Doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Are they only pretending to be Marxist-Leninist, then? Yeltsin’s ban should have meant no new iteration of any communist party, but he specifically banned only the CPSU; this resurgence of former CPSU fellow travelers under a new name helped send Boris packing too, eventually.
It’s really an exercise in mental masturbation. Liberals like to do it with their wet dream scenarios like the erstwhile “West Wing,” “Madam Secretary,” that short one with Sigourney Weaver, and all the other liberal trash shows.
Until somebody invents a time machine and can go back and really do something about ‘history,’ it is IMMUTABLE. Diversions otherwise are pointless.
6 Dead Red Ted Kennedy’s collusion with the Soviets is successful in defeating Ronald Reagan’s re-election in 1984.
Liberals in the US and UK STILL think that Reagan and Thatcher are going to kill us all with a missile attack on Mother Russia.
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