Turning Soviet government apparatchiks into Republicans would have been an awful idea. With the fullness of time, Republican leadership has demonstrated itself to be every bit as wicked as the Soviets, in an internationalist and war-like way.
I would make the argument we could have moved into Poland and the other Central European countries, what would the Soviets have done about it? But I definitely would have not tried to invade the Soviet Union, that would have been madness.
To be fair, Republican leadership only got us directly involved in a war AFTER al Qaeda blew up the twin towers and part of the pentagon.
But I do agree, turning the Soviets into republicans wouldn’t have been a good idea, especially when the Soviets technically were already republicans anyways, of the French and Spanish stripe. Heck, of the Jeffersonian Republican stripe anyways (yes, there was a Republican party before the one Lincoln helmed. It was helmed by Thomas Jefferson, and had more in common with the Jacobins in France and the Democrat party of today).
I still think Patton should have been allowed to stop the Soviets, though.