>>>>I am really surprised. I have absolutely no problem now in thinking that from this point on, you can go it alone in the world. I really hope the U.S. does not bail out Netherlands again if your view is the general view of the public there.
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>>>Not sure if I understand. I simply stated that I did understand the moves of the russians, whether it was good or bad. Look at it from their side. They want these european wars to end, no matter what. They had three succesive wars (napoleon, WWI, WWII) where it was invaded by europeans in little over a hundred years. They lost many, many millions of lives.
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>>IMO Stalin wouldn't have minded the loss of life so much. The Germans saved him doing it to his own people himself - all he was interested in was the sovereignty of the USSR.
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>And this was in danger as long as europe was able to re-arm itself again. Though we probalby will agree that stalin was a terrible dictator, his moves were understandable in the case.

Understandable, but what more right did he have than Hitler to seize other sovereign countries, like Hungary? East Germany one can understand - spoils of war, punishing the agressor, and all that. "Oh, while I'm at it, protecting my borders, I might as well do a bit of empire building, as I have the army all ready modilised and all".

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>>>Don't you understand their pov? Is it really that hard to look through 'the bad communistic' views ?
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>>There's a lot of truth in that, but they used the end of the Patriotic War as an excuse to land-grab, and extend their "buffer zones"
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>If you were the leader of russia, being betrayed just recently by hitler, having a history with a clear patern of millions of russian lives lost. What would you do ?? IOW, what were the alternatives ? This was the moment they were waiting for to get rid of old europe for once and for all.

As I said, I don't think he gave a toss for the lives of millions of his citizens. He accounted for PLENTY of them himself. He even "rewarded" certain satellites' soldiers, who'd fought loyally at his side, by sending them to the gulags (can't remember which, but a mongoloid race).

The vastness of Russia, after 2 abortive campaigns, Napolean's and Hitler's, I think would have been deterrent enough vs any further attempt to invade. Missiles and bombers maybe, but having buffer states doesn't stop them from flying over.

OTOH it WAS a bit of "six of one and half a dozen of the other" between the two super-powers, both mutually afraid of the other. Sting had it right in his song "Do the Russians love their children too" (or whatever it was called). IOW, the fears the west had of Russia were just the same as vice versa, and the Russians had their own welfare to consider if they should be the aggressor.
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>walter,