In message <p05010400b6ee4ca3a094@[216.254.77.128]>, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> writes
>>The USSR was a threat to U.S. domination of the world.
>I can see how one might have believed that in 1956, but now that we have
>all seen behind the iron curtain it is patently obvious that the USSR
>was talked up big style. Its industry was a sick joke, and its space
>programme ran on clockwork. I don't doubt that the Pentagon believed its
>own myths of soviet danger, but the tanks were never going to roll over
>Western Europe - as I said, at the time.
Interesting, since my impression living in the FSU is that its economy was much better than it was portrayed in the West (well, US, anyway).