At 11:49 26-5-01 -0400, Gautam Mukunda wrote:
>When they attempted to throw the Soviets out - in 1956 in Hungary, and
>in 1968 in Czechoslovakia - the were _massacred_ by Soviet tanks. You
>have yet to respond to this point.
Gautum, how long have you and I been on this list? You really should know
by now my opinion about such things. The fact that I question American
politics, and don't treat capitalism and "The American Way" as gospel,
doesn't mean I think believe everything the Soviet Union does was right.
> How is it "protecting yourself" to
>conquer 6 countries and keep your soldiers there - against the wishes
>of the people in those countries?
<sigh>
Again, I was only referring to the presence of troops on the border with
the enemy. Wether the population agreed with it or not is not relevant to
that point.
BTW, from a military POV, it was an excellent idea to occupy the
surrounding countries: it provided a large buffer zone that protected the
SU from invasion. Just because it wasn't a nice thing to do doesn't mean it
wasn't brilliant.
>By your standard, Nazi Germany was only protecting itself.
Excuse me? What gave you that idea? Keeping forces at the borders of your
empire to protect yourself from invasion is something completely different
from attacking other countries. Remember that Germany *started* the war? If
it was only protecting itself, the war would have been started by a country
that attacked Germany.
Jeroen
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