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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: epicure who wrote (116550)10/11/2003 12:02:12 PM
From: Lazarus_Long  Read Replies (3) of 281500
 
That is silly. During the Cold War there was a good reason the US refused to renounce first strike and reasons the USSR did. Ignoring it is a simplistic and ignorant attack on your own country.

The US and West Germany deployed minimal forces along the eastern border of West Germany. Neither wished to devote its entire economy to war. The US intended to fly in forces later if the Soviets attacked. The USSR, OTOH, had large and well equipped armored and infantry forces in the GDR and nearby eastern Europe. The US and West German forces in West Germany were quite overmatched. If they were overrun before they could be reinforced and the Soviets broke out towards your beloved France, the US intended to use battlefield nuclear weapons to stop them. The USSR happily renounced first use as a ploy to put pressure on the US to do likewise. Does anyone doubt that the gray eminences in the Kremlin would have broken that promise if it were necessary to save their grip on power?

The nuclear disarmament movement in the West was simply a Communist front organization and its wishful-thinking dupes.

A similar situation exists with respect to the US and the land mine ban treaty. The US has a large number of mines deployed along the border between North and South Korea to stop an enemy that will gladly starve its own population to gain military superiority. Removing them would amount to sacrificing South Korea. With North Korea now developing nuclear weapons, the US has to consider that nukes may have to be used to stop North Korean forces in case of attack.
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