"Soviet America." Topic

"The grim, if now laughable, specter of gulag imprisonment, rationed Russian food and substandard television programming affected the psyches of millions of Americans from the moment the Soviets tested their first A-bomb in 1949 until a tipsy Boris Yeltsin took office in 1991. In between these two momentous events numerous books, films, television programs, albums and "pageants" depicted, warned and worried about what might happen if America was conquered by the Communists.

Some of these works were subtle and allegorical like the Science Fiction "invasion" films of the 1950's. Others were blatant and ham-handed like the 1987 television miniseries AMERIKA, a behemoth and wooden production that likely prolonged the Cold War by approximately 14 hours. Collectively, the films, books, records, pageants and television programs represent a shared paranoid delusion that should never be forgotten.

In this wide-ranging feature, CONELRAD seeks to fully explore, preserve and revel in the various artifacts and events that contributed to the rich legacy of "Soviet America." From reactionary Hollywood fare that exacerbated the panic that Communist agents actually lived and plotted among us (THE RED MENACE, I MARRIED A COMMUNIST, THE WHIP HAND, etc.) to outright illustrations of Communist domination (the films INVASION USA, RED NIGHTMARE, RED DAWN and AMERIKA) to real life political theater such as the mock Communist take-over of Mosinee, Wisconsin (1950) to pamphlets and books warning of Soviet invasion…"
From
link

Main page with a huge info about Cold War.
conelrad.com/index.php

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

I have a friend who collects that stuff. He loves old Cold War American paranoia movies, novels, posters, etc. The more post-Apocalyptic, the better.

Sadly, many are still still trying…..

Given what the Soviets did to Hungaria, Bilgaria, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Albania, Czechoslovakia, etc, etc, it was not all paranoia.

You can argue that they could never really have invaded America, but they certainly would have done some terrible things if they had.

Hindsight is gloriously 20-20.

Mike

I guess if a world leader says to another country that "We will bury you", it could lead to a bit of paranoia. This would be especially true if the same country/group seem to be on an expansionist course with the stated goal of world domination.

Topic: The Soviet Union was an expansionist power during the time frame of the Kruschev regime. Discuss.

Time allowed: 1 hour.

Imperial Russia -Soviet Union -Russia today are expansionist powers due to the fact they are all paranoid about being invaded. When you have been invaded by the Norse, Mongols, Germans, Poles, Turks, Japanese, USA, Swedes, British, French, Austrians, Chinese, Tartars, Ukrainians, etc. Maybe you have a right to be paranoid that the rest of the world is out to get you. The only safe thing is to have buffer States between you and the enemy, and you are only truly safe when your buffer States meet on the other side of the world.

So my conclusion is that the Russians will always be seeking to expand. It's their nature. Just like the Germans want to dominant Europe and bring order to it. This time they did it without an army. They used the banks.

Soviet did and do live in this and alot of others countries as do our spies….

Curiously that same game of inluence gathering (paranoia?) has been played by the USA since their early beginnings and the Monroe doctrine (a manifest destiny is the closer one can get to outright expansionism).

It is certain that Russia has not "expanded" since its wars against the turks. Territorial gains were later in the form of autonomous republics which became independent at last. That actual political manipulation is handled by the Putin administration does not imply (by far) that the Russian people are imperialists.

Just as political manipulation by several yankee administrations (McKinley, Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Bush) hendled, made up (or tried) a number of buffer and client states and ignored national and cultural issues over that, collaborating and/or creating situations that messed up (and still mess up in most of the cases) tohse states (central America, Iraq, Afganistan, Vietnam, Africa…).

It would ve fun to know the soviet version of this whole "paranoia" thing…

As I've already posted in several topics, there's a distinct difference between general feeling in the west and in the east in times of cold war.

One common thing was military lobby, that was inflating the capability of their potential enemy to get military spending in their own countries increased.

Of course, we have to take into account difficulties on obtaining the right information and desinformation ops used by both sides…

But anyway, I have a feeling, that even knowing the truth, western elite was deliberately creating a paranoia atmosphere and image of evil empire with bloodthirsty commies. Idiotic leaders like Khrushov were giving some base
for this feeling with his "we will bury you" stuff, however even this phrase was used in context that socialism will be able to send capitalism to the wastebin, and not that Soviet Union will throw H-bomb on every town.

In SU, the leaders were creating different type of lie. We were taught, that western workers and farmers are good bunch, oppressed by evil capitalists on every minute of their miserable life, and that even that our great country has certain difficulties, it is nothing, comparing with hardships of the western working class. As all media was state controlled, it was working to some extent up to Gorbachev rise to power.
Evil warmongers in the west were always looking to the destruction of the USSR, but our army has enough potential to detain any agressor. Therefore – no paranoia for masses, but deep paranoia in the minds of elders in Politbyuro.
After devastating WWII, our leadership figured that the only way to prevent future war was to be and look very scary. Germans had more tanks at certain points of WWII? We'll make more tanks we ever need, same for artillery, same for nuclear subs. The only field where Khrushov was smart enough not to compete with the west were carriers, as he was an enemy of all fleet above the water level ;)

Our strategic planning was always considering the worst case scenario. I've spend my army years in Karelia, on small piece of land between Finnish border and Ladoga lake, and we and our neighbours had firepower equal to some mid-range countries, when we were full stuff at the drills.
I was asking my officers sometimes, what all of these guns are doing there, providing that from all capitalist countries the best relations were with Finland.

General feeling which was confirmed a couple of times on the drills, was that we were defending Leningrad in case of possible war against NATO airborne forces that will either move from Norway, or directly from Canada/USA. Still, no one of the officers really beleived that such a war can happen…

Very interesting to read something about "the other side".
Thanks Barin1.

Amicalement
Armand