>In the early 50s, US Intelligence estimated that the Soviets had hundreds of long range bombers>It turns out that these estimates were based on Soviet Airshows, where the Soviets cleverly rotated the same aircraft to make their airforce seem larger than it actually was>By the late 50s, American U2 Spyplanes were casually debunking Soviet air superiority by openly photographing airfields over the Soviet Union without them realizing>it turns out they had less than 100Were the Soviets ever a credible threat?
>>18766686no, soviets even exported many things such as military vehicles and weapons to the west because the iron curtain wasn't economically self sufficient
>>18766686No, and the fact that the US allowed Soviet satellite states in our hemisphere out of that misplaced fear was asinine.
They could become a potential threat, they were already known to send agents and spies to the US to steal secrets, it's how they were able to develop nukes. The point was to make the Soviets think the Americans still saw them as a potential threat. As far as the USSR was concerned, Americans still thought they had hundreds of long range bomber aircraft and strike capability. The Cold War is a fascinating masterclass in political theater. American intelligence basically turned Soviet Propaganda machine against itself by ensuring that they would focus more on psyop campaigns than military proliferation, as running psyops is simply cheaper, all the Americans had to do was make the Soviets think they saw them as threats. And yes, McCarthyism played a huge role in that, albeit at the expense of some innocent civilians
>>18766686>it turns out they had less than 100No, the Soviet Air Force had 565 bombers.
>>18766751That's never been confirmed
>>18766758Refute it.
>>18766765The airforce already did in the 50s
the tu22 is literal garbage.
>>18767088That's obviously a Tu-16
>>18766686nothe US military and the industrial complex ALWAYS vastly overstates threats through bullshit intel, leaks, and propagandized media connections in order to procure a never ending stream of money from tax dollarsthe Soviets/Russia are retards and always completely lie about their capabilities in some outdated nationalistic angle China doesn't say much about theresThe US always greatly downplays it's capabilities because it gets them more money and it's also smarter
>>18766686In the 50s-60s yes, but a lesser one. With the 70s and 80s, America blew them out of the water. Soviets were somewhat behind, but only became hopelessly so as America steamrolled ahead with microelectronic and digital technology that the Soviet command economy failed to properly distribute. Ironic since the 70s the Soviets finally reached nuclear parity with America.
>>18767131*smarter in the sense of hiding capabilities is a good tactic, the catch is bankrupting the country through MIC grift waste and abuse is very bad strategically, which is what the US's main threat is now
>Ironic since the 70s the Soviets finally reached nuclear parity with America.Also double Ironic because it turned out that with MAD, Nukes were just a very expensive white elephant that were never going to be used in any practical situation.
The ideology was a credible threat as it was spreading like wildfire in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
>>18767145Thing is, America itself was never in any serious threat from a communist revolution, attack or invasion, (except for maybe the cuban missile crisis)The average guy never really cared about what any of these third world countries were doing either, they just hated the concept of America LOSING.
>>18767130Ironically the 16 was actually better
Nope. They were always puffing themselves up to look more threatening than they were. Always teetering on the brink of economic collapse to maintain the image of a military superpower. Nothing has changed.
>>18767192Doesn't matter when you have 40 thousand nuclear warheads.
>>1876719540 thousand nuclear warheads don't matter in a MAD scenario anon. Nukes are a useless counter to other nuclear powers
>>18766686The Cold War was really just mutts going full paranoia mode thinking the Soviets were gonna attack them any day while the Soviets just chilled and continued on with their daily lives
>>18767196Americans gave the nuke plans and some materials to the Russians through len lease in order to stage the next great threat to the populace. Fear is the most powerful emotion. "Duck and cover" they told the baby coomers...and did they ever.
>>18767263Russia's attitude towards bomb shelters was "if there is a war no amount of shelters would prevent annihilation" so they just didn't bother
