In Defense of the Red Army

[StainlessSteelCynic]

@ Vespers War - That's some interesting information. While I was vaguely aware of some of it, I didn't know the extent it influenced US military policy. I wonder what their motivation was, were they genuinely afraid the Soviets were beating the West, were they just so hawkish that they wanted to be the "biggest kid on the block" or were they motivated by the potential financial gain through R&D or manufacture of weapons & gear to "defeat" the Red Menace? Or perhaps something else?

Mind you, the Soviets certainly did not help to dispel the notion. They were happy to make some outlandish claims regarding their technology. Again, it's a complex situation and not something that should be dismissed simply as nationalist propaganda as I've read some anecdotal reports that the Soviets were worried about Western tech and thus allegedly became desperate to convince their own people & allies that they actually were superior to the West. So it wasn't always propaganda to be directed at the Western world, sometimes it was meant for their own allies.

The best example of that I know of is from a former co-worker of mine who was Czechoslovakian by birth. His mother had been a nurse for the Germans in WW2 and so they faced a bit of discrimination from the post-war government at times (and the family's Germanic name didn't help!). This convinced him to escape the country and move to Australia (which he and his wife did by taking a "holiday" in Yugoslavia). One tale he told was of his cousin who had apparently worked with the Soviet Army during his period of conscript service.

His cousin had told him that the Russians had laser weapons, apparently many Czechoslovak soldiers "knew" about them. These laser weapons were allegedly able to scorch a football field sized area from kilometres away. My co-worker firmly believed it was true, even when I presented evidence that the whole story was probably a massive exaggeration.

It doesn't matter now that it turned out to be all false or at best, greatly exaggerated. What matters is that at the time, some people actually believed it and some people found they could easily present those pieces of information to claim that the Soviets were a massive threat.
I'm reminded of what Chalkline mentioned in another thread - given the levels of info manipulation at the time and what would have made it's way out to the public, GDW's estimate of Warsaw Pact forces is on the lower end of the over-estimatations of Communist capability!