WW3.IV.

This is coolbert:

  Hearts & Minds.

I have discussed how the forty five year "war" between the now defunct Soviet Union and the United States was waged world wide, by many parties, in confrontational and shooting mode both, on many "FRONTS" simultaneously.

But this war was much more than that.

It was too a battle for "hearts and minds". A much used phrase from the Vietnam War. But could be used to describe what went on not ONLY in Vietnam, but throughout the conflict.

It was a competition for world-domination between rival and diametrically opposed systems. Systems that seemed to be mirror image opposites of another. IT DID seem that both sides COULD NOT exist forever in the same world. ONE would eventually be defeated and disappear. This IS what DID happen.

In this sense the war was not only physical, it had a VERY LARGE psychological dimension to it.

The Soviets did see their system as eventually emerging triumphant. This WAS TO BE PART OF A NATURAL PROGRESSION THAT WOULD OCCUR FROM A HISTORICAL TRANSITION [feudal-to-capitalistic-to-socialistic-to-communistic] THAT ACCORDING TO THE COMMUNIST THEORETICIANS, WAS INEVITABLE. An inevitability that also could be accelerated by Soviet machinations world-wide. "We will push the west [capitalism] into the grave" - - Krushchev!!]. Such threats WERE taken very seriously and repeated by the leadership and lay public of the United States over and over!!

The Americans DID see their side as being the leader of what was called the "free world". Representing values and hard won freedoms that were sorely lacking in the communist world. So MUCH so lacking that communism COULD NOT BE ABIDED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. It was felt that a victory of communism would hasten a new "dark age".

Communism was also seen in the west [especially America] as being a system that could NOT deliver the "goods" in a material way to it's people. Rather, a faulty system that bought economic misery to all that lived under the communist ideology. Communism was seen as always PROMISING a brighter tomorrow that NEVER CAME ANYWHERE!!

[this does not even take into account the dictatorship, the mass murder on a colossal scale, and the almost malevolent side of communist rule world-wide. A rule that was accomplished with a very heavy hand. An "iron rule" with an "iron curtain". The communist personality cult rulers did NOT help their cause any in the eyes of westerners!! Rather they only reinforced the perceptions of many that turned out to be correct.]

This war WAS NOT JUST about the conventional reasons nations go to war. A piece of land. Access to raw materials. A historical grievance. Etc. This war had a world-wide dimension with consequences that were of "biblical proportions".

One side believed it would enable communism and a dictatorship of the proleteriat world-wide, bringing prosperity and "equality" to the masses.

The other side believed it represented the innate freedom of man to live unencumbered to the greatest extent possible without the interference of government, and to live also in prosperity. A prosperity already achieved in the U.S. A prosperity that COULD NEVER BE ACHIEVED IN COMMUNIST DOMINATED LANDS!!

[one can argue until they are blue in the face as to what extent the leaders of both sides in the war ACTUALLY BELIEVED IN WHAT THEY SAID!! I am sure you could find and point out all sorts of exceptions that would lead one to come to the conclusion that the ideals each side espoused were largely hot air. Or that both sides were pitiful giants flailing at each other when the differences between the two were NOT that great!! I speak here in broad general terms that this war WAS A WAR OF DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED SIDES!!]

coolbert.