>>>Remember the domino theory? Well, that was the reason behind our actions in Vietnam.
>>>
>>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_Theory
>>
>>Nice... the entire scheme was based on "we assume they would do exactly as we would if we were in their position, and since we don't like them, we'll wage as many wars as we like to make sure the guys we like win over the guys we don't like. We are control freaks, and so must they be too".
>
>Yeah, what kind of paranoid fool must Kennan have been to think Stalin was a control freak <s>
>
>( for the non-historians - George Kennan was the author of containment strategy and is considered one of founding theorists of the Cold War ... oh, and Stalin was the Great Helmsman ( or was that Mao? ) of the Workers' Paradise and the never doubted hero of American "Progressives" for 25 years - well, except for the Trotskyites ... )

Only two faults with this line of thought:

1) The Guy Of Steel died in 1953. The cold war was kept warm for almost forty years afterwards.

2) he was a control freak at home and within his realm (i.e. including the satellite countries), but not even his inner circle ever counted on Western communist parties doing anything much. He did sign the Yalta, right? He sold the Greek partisans after the war, just like he sold German communists before it.

>The idea that the Cold War was a mutual hallucination is both revisionist and wrong.

Oh, no, it was a real case... two cases of nomenklatura selling protection to their own people, using the other as pretext. Perfect for staying in power forever.