05-08-2009, 03:11 PM
Quote:The cold-war, and our continuing tiff with Cuba was less about the economic system of communism, and more about the tyranny of Stalinism.It was about neither, primarily. Both the conflict with the USSR and the continued hostility with Cuba were about the same thing: international power. Who controls what? Who gets to set the terms for the world? Do the countries in a region support your side, or their side?
Cuba was a particularly egregious insult, where a country went from being a US colony-in-all-but-name to being a dependency of the USSR, right on your doorstep. Most other cold war conflicts were similar. Korea was about that kind of control. So was Vietnam, and Afghanistan, and pretty much every other cold war conflict, direct or indirect. And even in conflicts where you wouldn't otherwise seek to exert control, there was always the problem: if you didn't, would the Soviets? And the same would be true going the other way.
It certainly had nothing to do with an opposition to tyranny: the US supported more pro-American dictators during the cold war than I could count on my fingers and toes, occasionally even against a democratic alternative. The Shah of Iran? Pinochet? These were not gentle, freedom-loving folk. The Soviets' record is even worse, but then, only fools ever expected support for democracy from them.
-Jester