Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (86128)	8/23/2000 1:45:58 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Respond to of 108807

>We certainly weren't going to attack them,< This is the part I am not sure about. Certainly the Gov't and the media worked hand in hand to promote the idea that our vast military might was geared toward defense. (Although coverage of Viet Nam seems to have tarnished this spin.) But unless I've been misinformed, the official if unadvertised USA policy in Europe was to meet the East Block's overwhelming conventional might with the promise of unlimited nuclear counterstrike. We simply could not match or stand against them in a tank battle, so we declared that we would use nukes to counter ANY conventional excursion or adventure west of the Curtain. The Russians had much to fear from us in the nuclear arena. I remember that in the late 70s and early 80s there was talk of a "surgical" pre-emptive strike using nuclear ICBMs, one that would short-circuit the premise of Mutual Assured Destruction. Imagine how frightening and destabilizing such talk must have been outside USA borders. (You wouldn't need to imagine, I imagine.) Combine this with the fact that the Russians were unsure of our technical capability - maybe we had some new gadget that could spoof their detection capability, and this hole card emboldened our generals? (Soviet state motto: Even Paranoids Have Enemies.) I conclude that there is nothing more dangerous than to scare someone who's holding a gun on you. One day we'll learn how close the Russians came to launching a pre-emptive strike of their own. The only certainty is: we didn't; they didn't. Thank goodness.