5 Ways the Soviet Union Could Have Won the Cold War (Or at Least Survived It)

The National Interest ^ | December 24, 2016 | Tom Nichols

[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.

[uncbob]

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

[a fool in paradise]

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.

[a fool in paradise]

“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.

[henkster]

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.

[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.

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.

[Gaffer]

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!”

[VRW Conspirator]

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.

[henkster]

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.

[xone]

including the 2nd largest (employee "owned") bank in Colorado

Which bank is it?

[HLPhat]

How many employee owned banks are there in Colorado?

[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

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...

[central_va]

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.

[EQAndyBuzz]

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.

[Fiji Hill]

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.

[xone]

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

[kearnyirish2]

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.

[HLPhat]

>>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.

• On his stated opposition to the use of the atomic bomb against the Japanese at the end of World War II, as quoted in Newsweek (11 November 1963), p. 107"
• https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

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

[HLPhat]

They know who they are.

[Grimmy]

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

[Mr Radical]

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).