Time for the Cold War to Re-commence!

crocodileman

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Mark Perica said:
What about the SS-20 and Cruise missile depoyment in 1983. There was an escalation of the arms race then - the cold war was just that "cold" - it cannot be characterised by how close it came to being "hot". I went through Berlin and Moscow in 1983 and I can assure you that to me it looked like the cold war was still going!

If you were born in 1983 (I assume that is what Blueboy83 means) then you would not know what it was like to go through that period - please sonny don't pontificate about something you have only read about in history books.
Finally, some sanity and intelligence comes into this thread!!
 

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#27
Dry Rot said:
I was there too in 1983. Presume you went to East Berlin and sounds like you went to other Eastern Bloc countries.

I went to Czechoslovakia, and travelled pretty freely.

Are you saying that we both would have similar experiences at the height of the Cold War in the fifties and sixties?

Also travelled totally freely in China in 1986 - would have been very different in 1966 or 1956.

Late Cold War, while potentially dagerous, was more just an arms race like before WW1. Earlier Cold War was far more a battle of hearts and minds such as that proposed at the start of this thread.
Coming through from East to West Berlin by train is something I will never forget! I take your point about relative danger but the fact is Mutually Assured Destruction was still an every day possibility particulalry during the post Brezhnev sclerotic era with Chernenko and Andropov- the cold war endured for the forty years from 46 to 89.

Strangely I was more aware of the police presence in East Berlin than in Moscow and they where very invisible to tourists in Zagreb
 

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#28
Mark Perica said:
Coming through from East to West Berlin by train is something I will never forget! I take your point about relative danger but the fact is Mutually Assured Destruction was still an every day possibility particulalry during the post Brezhnev sclerotic era with Chernenko and Andropov- the cold war endured for the forty years from 46 to 89.

Strangely I was more aware of the police presence in East Berlin than in Moscow and they where very invisible to tourists in Zagreb
My main point was that the battle for hearts & minds was fought earlier. You wouldn't have been travelling to Moscow in the fifties or sixties unless you were a CPA member.
 

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#29
Dry Rot said:
My main point was that the battle for hearts & minds was fought earlier. You wouldn't have been travelling to Moscow in the fifties or sixties unless you were a CPA member.
What about the propoganda movies of the 80s such as "Red Dawn" and "Amerika" and the characterisation of the Eastern Block as the "Evil Empire" - surely if the battle for hearts and minds had've been over in the fifties the demonisation of the enemy would not have been necessary.
 

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Dry Rot said:
My main point was that the battle for hearts & minds was fought earlier. You wouldn't have been travelling to Moscow in the fifties or sixties unless you were a CPA member.
It was a constant fight for the hearts and minds - only after Gorbachev came to office did this battle for hearts and minds abate. Even then, Gorbachev believed that to allow these satellite states more freedom to decide their futures, would draw them even closer to Russia. Clearly, he was wrong, as you are, dear Dry Rot!
 

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#31
crocodileman said:
It was a constant fight for the hearts and minds - only after Gorbachev came to office did this battle for hearts and minds abate. Even then, Gorbachev believed that to allow these satellite states more freedom to decide their futures, would draw them even closer to Russia. Clearly, he was wrong, as you are, dear Dry Rot!
Yes, you're absolutely right - the fight for hearts and minds in the Cold War was its height in the eighties.

Prime Minister Fraser had a referendum trying to ban the CPA in 1981, Czechoslovakia was invaded in 1986, all the Cambridge spies were into Depeche Mode & Simple Minds, Reagan stood stood up to the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1987, the Profumo Affair engulfed Thatcher's govt in 1980 and the McCarthy trials between 1982 & 1984 outed Spielberg, Coppola, Harrison Ford and Woody Allen, never to work in Hollywood again.
 

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Dry Rot said:
Yes, you're absolutely right - the fight for hearts and minds in the Cold War was its height in the eighties.

Prime Minister Fraser had a referendum trying to ban the CPA in 1981, Czechoslovakia was invaded in 1986, all the Cambridge spies were into Depeche Mode & Simple Minds, Reagan stood stood up to the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1987, the Profumo Affair engulfed Thatcher's govt in 1980 and the McCarthy trials between 1982 & 1984 outed Spielberg, Coppola, Harrison Ford and Woody Allen, never to work in Hollywood again.
Dry Rot - Survival Policy For BigFooty

27. When getting destroyed in a debate, try to sidestep the argument with a post to provide a smokescreen for inadequacies.
 

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#34
crocodileman said:
Dry Rot - Survival Policy For BigFooty

27. When getting destroyed in a debate, try to sidestep the argument with a post to provide a smokescreen for inadequacies.
Perhaps you need it explained to you real slowly.

A claim like "The British were afraid of invasion during WW2" is technically correct, but it is more accurate to say that "The height of British fears of invasion were during 1940 - 41."

My point is simple - the sort of paranoia and fighting you suggested in your initial post is far more comparable to that of the earlier part of the Cold War.

And by the way, Mr History, when was height of the Cold War? Eras, periods and wars etc all ebb and flow within that era etc.

As far as surviving on BigFooty, over two and half years I've quite looked after myself and am a poster of good standing, unlike yourself.
 
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