Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
3) I can't think of any communist government that was popularly elected. In 1917 the Karensky government was elected in Russia. The Bolsheviks overthrew the government by force. They never held an election. Mao took over by force, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Castro, and Ortega. Poland, Hungary, Romania Czecholosavakia - all coups.
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Allende in Chile? Chavez in Venezuala? Putin in Russia? Mossadeq in Irag? The guy whose name escapes me in Guatamala or Hondurus in the 1950s?
Oh, and we didn't actually have the bomb after Nagasaki -- IIRC, that blast exhausted our stockpile. Given what we know about Klaus Fuchs, et al, Stalin may have known that, too. It would have meant permanent garrisons in Western Europe, and that act alone may well have resulted in a mutiny along the lines of what the French faced in 1917. (Don't think US troops would ever do that? Ever heard of the post-war "we wanna go home" riots on US military bases?)
Plus, I don't think that the American people would have tolerated it. For better or for worse, the Soviets were portrayed (even in the then-Republican media outlets like Time and Life) as our gallant friends and allies. It would be a little too 1984-ish to assume that our allies could instantly be converted into our enemies.
