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Politics : To be a Liberal,you have to believe that..... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (4596)	10/26/1999 10:17:00 AM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6418

In 1945, Igor Kurchakov, achieved the first Soviet chain reaction. He was helped by information from Klaus Fuchs on lensing and the other atomic spies. Stalin, despiite earlier reluctance, had supported the research when urged by Beria whom Kurchakov had persuaded. In 1949, the Soviets (with research led by Sakharov and Gustav Hertz (1925 Nobel Laureate from Germany) exploded a nuclear bomb.

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (4596)	10/26/1999 10:53:00 AM
From: Merritt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6418

Henry: A little addendum: prior to WWII, during the 30s, there were a great many Americans who were card-carrying members of the Communist Party...average working Joes, not just Hollywood types, and, as you said, it would have been extremely difficult to mobilize public opinion against the USSR. Even Henry Ford had OK'd the move of several of his workers to the USSR to set up assembly lines at factories. Communism hadn't yet been exposed as an unwieldy and inefficient mechanism that fostered repressive regimes, and the memory of the hard times of the Depression were still fresh in the minds of the American populace. The U.S. didn't enter WWII until after we'd been attacked by the Japanese - before that there were many in this country who felt we should side with the Axis (Henry Ford and ee cummings, for example - and many Communists/Socialists who wished to be on the side of the USSR while the USSR and Germany had a non-aggression pact). After the end of WWII it didn't take long for the differences between the two countries to become more apparent, and the demonizing by each of the other to begin, but neither country really wanted to become embroiled in a war with the other. All the nasty actions that ensued were done with proxies, and while bloody, were structured so as to avoid an actual war with the other. They were tests of weapons and will. It's no wonder Ike told us to beware the military/industrial complex...too bad JFK and LBJ didn't give more weight to his words.