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Old 11-03-2003, 11:07 AM   #28 (permalink)
mml
Adrift
 
Location: Wandering in the Desert of Life
I don't believe that the U.S., particularly under Truman, would have actually attacked the U.S.S.R. However, if we throw out logic and say that the U.S. did attack, I believe that it would be a war that no one would win. It would be bloody and long and would end up in a negotiated "peace". Most of the factors have already been discussed - U.S. air superiority and better trained forces v.s. the larger Soviet army. Brutal Russian weather, the vast size of the U.S.S.R. and their willingness to sacrifice people and land in order to win would seemingly make it impossible to truly defeat the Soviets. The U.S. would have its successes, but eventually their losses would begin to outweigh the value of those successes.

Interestingly though, such a war would most likely have pushed the Soviets out of Eastern Europe and possiblely weakened their military enough to prevent their future domination of Eastern Europe and ability to assist Communist insurgencies around the globe. No matter the outcome, we would be living in a different world today.
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