>Dean:
>
>I think we have spent money on the military when we had to. We entered the Second World War 3 years before you did. (You waited for Pearl Harbour).
>
>We were touring Russia at the time. They couldn't pump water to the top floors of their apartment buildings. People were not getting enough to eat. They could not grow crops or make anything effeciently because of a) laziness and b) corruption and black market.

Yeah their people leaved almost at the proverty level, but their military was virtual-state-of-the-art, second only to the USA in technology. They poured a lot of money into their militarty hardware.



>
>We visited 10 cities and maybe saw 10 military people. They were all on foot and without weapons.

Perhaps
1) They were off duty?
2) They traded their AK47s for bottle of Vadka?
3) Their leaders spent most of their money on ICBMs and Nuc. Warheads?

>
>Time and Newsweek had reporters in the Soviet Union and we never saw one article offering a discenting opinion that Russia was really not very threatening. Thats when I first realized that even though you have a "free press" it really isn't free. CNN can get an interview with any Cabinet Minister, Senator or Congessman because they follow the rules in supporting the propaganda. I think our media does much more investigative stuff against the government so we get more balanced information.

I doubt the Soviet Union gave the US reporters a grand tour of their military facilities.

I disagree. The US press would like nothing more then to nail the US gov't, especially the Republican variety.

>
>We waited out the War in Vietnam because our media was not very anti-communist. And to this day, we do not have bad feeling toward Russia, China or Cuba simply because they are Communist. We would need a specific issue like the Tienamen Square riots to turn us against a government.
>
>We pretty much waited out the Cold War with Russia.

I think the USA had a lot to do with Russia going belly up.