Its pretty much standard procedure with marxists. They always have an outside enemy threatening so the people at home don’t take their anger out on them.
Comment on Orwell’s 1984. Not my words, but they pretty much sum up what you said.
“The objective is not to win the war, but to maintain a constant state of war in order to keep its citizens under control. When it is at war with Eastasia, the government declares that it has always been at war with Eastasia, that its people are an eternally hated enemy that must be destroyed. When the sides change, the same thing is said about Eurasia. It is considered every patriotic citizen’s duty to believe both statements are true.”