The Soviet menace was never much of a "menace" It was nothing more than a propaganda campaign designed to build up our military. Your allusion to Africa is nothing more than an allusion also. Africa removed itself from the shackles of European colonization during the 50's 60's and 70's. None of it had to do with the Soviets. The Soviets weren't colonial powers in Africa.

Many that is true, but an incomplete statement.

On the first day of China’s biggest political event of the year, Xi Jinping sent a clear message to Donald Trump: We’re going to do what we want in Hong Kong, and we’re not scared of the consequences.

China confirmed on Friday that it would effectively bypass the city’s legislature to implement national security laws, which have long been resisted by residents who fear they will erode freedoms of speech, assembly and the press. The announcement, which came on the same day China refrained from setting an economic growth target for the first time in decades, triggered immediate calls for fresh protests and sent the MSCI Hong Kong index to its worst loss since 2008.

For instance they were never taught that Columbus was a slave owner.

You have said that without russia the allies do not win ww2. Sounds like you thought they were menacing at one time.

men·ace
/ˈmenəs/
Learn to pronounce
noun
a person or thing that is likely to cause harm;

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

The Cold War was very real. Came pretty damn close to blowing up the world in '62. It wasn't just propaganda nor was the Soviet Union a paper tiger in those days. They weren't a declining power until the late 70's.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

The word menace means a threat.

Power in of itself doesn't make a country "threatening". If that is the case then every nation on earth should feel "threatened" by the U.S. and any actions that they take as a result is justifiable correct? After all being powerful constitutes "menace" according to you.

Clearly you believe they were the most powerful army in Europe at least at the end of the war. At the very least they were the second.

"Most powerful" is a relative term. All of the other countries of Europe had been ravaged by the war remember? The Soviets were nothing more than the last man standing in this instance. They all were decimated. Soviets included. With this being the case there was no way that they were going to engage anyone in war

That means they were a threat. They also showed no qualms about occupying their neighbors hence they are a threat to expand military occupations if leaders saw fit.

Yes they did occupy, influence, and threaten their neighbors. This just means that they were a threat.... to their neighbors.

While you can say that Stalin did not believe in a worldwide revolution that is debatable. And at the core of communist belief is a worldwide revolution.

Supporting political movements is a whole different than fomenting world wide war. I hope you can understand the difference

So this means there is a powerful army, under a non-democratically elected government where predicting the next leader is a complete spin of the wheel. And they are governed by a doctrine calling for worldwide domination by their style of government. It seems to me based on those factors, and their support for expanding communist regimes around the world that the Soviet army was a menace and not something just made up by conservatives,.

Always remember you aren't partisan. None of what you posted establishes that they were particularly threatening. The U.S. was much more concerned with worldwide hegemony than the Soviets happened to be. Have you ever considered them to be particularly "menacing"? We both know the answer don't we.

The Soviets were concerned mostly with dominating and controlling Eastern Bloc countries. They provided military and economic support to left leaning socialist types for the purpose of turning them communist but they weren't going around starting wars if it were outside of the Eastern bloc.

Afghanistan debunked the myth of the "Soviet Menace" quite effectively. If you want to say Cuban Missile Crisis then yeah that constituted a threat. However the Cuban Missile Crisis inly serves to further validate my point.

Which is that the Soviet position was always one of defense. That's why they established the iron curtain in the first place. They'd been invaded 3 or 4 times in their recent history and hoped to prevent it from occurring again. The establishment of Soviet Satellites was done with this in mind.

That doesn't excuse them for treating the people of Eastern Europe like crap because they did. They deserved to be overthrown if for no other reason than that. As far as "worldwide revolution" goes it wouldn't take long to demonstrate how U.S. designs on the world were much more pervasive.

men·ace
/ˈmenəs/
a person or thing that is likely to cause harm;

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

The Soviet menace was never much of a "menace" It was nothing more than a propaganda campaign designed to build up our military. Your allusion to Africa is nothing more than an allusion also. Africa removed itself from the shackles of European colonization during the 50's 60's and 70's. None of it had to do with the Soviets. The Soviets weren't colonial powers in Africa.

Starving out a nuclear power. I'm sure that will work out great.

Wait....that's partially true and partially untrue. See Nardi's post above. As incompetent as the Reds were, they got into space, they stole the bomb and developed nukes, they controlled tons o' land and sea, they had a large standing army, and they had their own colonies (just as Rusland had from the beginning) in Eurasia.

They didn't need Africa the way the Chinese do--I think that is your point.

I think you might be right about the propaganda, though. Many people told me they were proud that Reagan drove the USSR into bankruptcy with the arms build-up. That might have been the Soviets' own (admittedly pyrrhic) plan as well.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

They were formidable. They weren't much of a menace for the United States. They were never going to war with the United States unless they were attacked first

They were formidable. They weren't much of a menace for the United States. They were never going to war with the United States unless they were attacked first

not much of a menace. i had nuclear war drills in school and hid under my desk, but they were't much of a menace.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

We all have. That doesn't mean that they were likely to attack. We also have been bombarded with propaganda regarding the Islamic "menace" for nearly 20 years too haven't we?

There was a ton of propaganda associated with the Cold War just like there has been a ton of propaganda associated with Islamic terrorism over the past 20 years
We used the imagined threat of the Soviet Union as a means of beefing up our military.

If you ever discovered who the actual U.S "mastermind" of the Cold War happened to be you would be mad as hell.

Well, they also sought to expand their client states (as did the US), which many of the natives of those countries rebelled against. They were aggressive, and they had annexed whole nations in the recent past.

They also benched Tretiak in '80.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

sounds like LTG stayed up too late watching Youtube on autoplay again.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

I spent my entire military time prepping for Soviet conflict. Whether directly or via proxies like Cuba, central and south America. This may be popular now to simply blame Reagan but I assure you there were much more than a simple menace.

sounds like LTG stayed up too late watching Youtube on autoplay again.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

The Cold War was very real. Came pretty damn close to blowing up the world in '62. It wasn't just propaganda nor was the Soviet Union a paper tiger in those days. They weren't a declining power until the late 70's.

We all have. That doesn't mean that they were likely to attack. We also have been bombarded with propaganda regarding the Islamic "menace" for nearly 20 years too haven't we?

There was a ton of propaganda associated with the Cold War just like there has been a ton of propaganda associated with Islamic terrorism over the past 20 years
We used the imagined menace of the Soviet Union as a means of beefing up our military.

If you ever discovered who the actual U.S "mastermind" of the Cold War happened to be you would be mad as hell.

The entire premise behind the Cold War was based on the refusal of each to engage the other militarily. The Two World Geopolitical theory was based on the U.S and Soviet Union being able to successfully coexist in the post War World.

Came real fucking close in 82 as well plus 86 I think . that one was the Soviet early warning sensors went off , the Lt Colonel in charge did not follow SOP and immediately fire off he waited to verify,turned out the sensors picked up the sun reflecting off space garbage

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

A General from Germany?

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

The entire premise behind the Cold War was based on the refusal of each to engage the other militarily. The Two World Geopolitical theory was based on the U.S and Soviet Union being able to successfully coexist in the post War World.

Plus, aren't you part Lugan, too? Those people hate the Soviets.

If I were gay (note the subjunctive), I might think differently, but I wouldn't want this guy menacing my ass:

Nope.