Lee,
As we all know, relations weren't completely harmonious behind the Iron Curtain, and Russia's allies didn't always appreciate their intended roles in any impending war/nuclear holocaust.
The Poles in particular were aware of how deeply screwed they would be in pretty much any situation. Be it their conventional role of a maritime invasion of Denmark or on the receiving end of nuclear strikes by NATO to cut supply lines by taking out bridges (and therefore cities) all along the Wisla (Vistula). I can't recall how bad they thought it was going to be but I seem to recall they thought they would suffer 40% civilian casualties and Poland would be effectively cut in half.
I'm not sure if one General telling off another counts as a "stupid GI trick" but this exchange would have been interesting to witness:
It did not look like we thought, that we would go and we would defeat the Danes and Belgians. And [so] we prepared ourselves for the possibility of getting thrashed. One time at a training briefing in the General Staff, I was angry and could not hold back.
Since there was money there that was returned to the government, I stood up and told Jaruzelski, "General, more should be given to Civil Defense so that a good, solid bunker could be built, lock up in that bunker a hundred Polish men, some sort of real good fuckers and two hundred women so that we can rebuild the Polish nation. Give some money for that." Of course, Jaruzelski was insulted and said, "What are you talking about?"
- Gen. Tuczapski, Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact, Oral History Interviews with Polish Generals, September 2002
Tony