And we paid for that calculus by letting the Russians enslave Eastern Europe for fifty years, constant nuclear threats, squandering trillions on Cold War defense, and now we’re paying for it all over because Putin wants to Make Russia Soviet Again.
It’s not our obligation to play policeman of the world. Eisenhower knew a good deal about the brutal calculus of war and he wanted no part of starting a war with the Soviet Union. Hungary 1956 provided the opporunity. Millions spent on the Cold War sure beat a million casualties and a fortune squandered. Korea and Vietnam wasted enough of both and those were merely on the periphery.