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Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b
In a T2K v1 timeline, this might lead to a sense of increasing desperation --"We better attack now before they come up with something we definitely can't counter. We already can't match their technology -- we'll have to overwhelm them with numbers, which we have right now..." That sort of argument.
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Although the novel
Red Army didn't get too heavily into the "whys" of the Soviet attack chronicled therein, the reason you mention above was alluded to several times.
Also, the Soviet's war in Afghanistan was a severe drain on their finances. Withdrawing from A'stan, as they did IRL c. '89, would have saved the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Also, cutting back on subsidizing every Third World strongman or revolutionary who declared himself a Marxist/socialist/communist would help as well. With a few sginificant cost-cutting measures, I think the USSR could have remained solvent until T2K '95. Perhaps gaining control of resources on the Chinese side of the border was one of the Soviet's motives in launching the war.