GTCharlie:

> How many did McCarthy execute? or send to the Gulag? oh.. did he ruin their careers? awww poor Hollywood. Again please answer, what is the ratio of defectors? how many got shot escaping into East Germany? I dare say one side ... was a heck of a lot worse than the other.Again.. how does eastern europe feel? During the Cold War NOBODY was good. are you serious??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


How many people were killed in Vietnam by carpet bombing, napalm, agent orange, etc.?

How many people wre killed in Korea by the allies?

And when the CIA propped up dictators in Latin America and Africa, and those dictators went onto kill thousands upon thousands, who did they do it for? What for?

Both sides were equally rotten. Just because Americans enjoyed a good life while the developing world got screwed, it does not mean that the comfortable life of the North American middle class was enjoyed by all. Capitalism brought as much misery and death as communism did. Capitalism succeded in stopping communism, at a very high price. The only way that price can be justified is if capitalism claims some form of ideological and moral superiority. Without that self-superiority, the actions of capitalist countries during the Cold War are reduced to mere exercises in oppression and brutality, as bad as what the communists inflicted.

> how does eastern europe feel?

Then, how does Latin America feel? Why do you think Latin Americans are electing left wing governments? Is it Cuba "infecting" their minds? Or is it the fact that after all the killing and brutality, capitalism failed to improve the lives of common people? 20 years after the end of the Cold War, people are as poor and living in injustice as much as they did before. In many places people are as disillusioned with capitalism as Eastern Europeans are with communism.

We live in a world out of balance, always stuck in ideological extremes. Each ideology claims moral superiority and is incapable of accepting its wrongdoings. Communists were wrong. Capitalists were wrong too. Both sides were wrong and both sides did terrible things. Neither side was good in the end.

GTCharlie: What about those that were caught in the middle???

What about the people in Europe as a whole that were crapping their pants over the fact that we were bang in the middle of the firing line is someone decided M.A.D. was a good idea?

We had American cruise missiles based in the UK.. Women from the UK then camped outside that base.. As they knew if someone got trigger happy that base would be targeted.

In the end, any country that thought the playing of countries (as happened on both sides) and the use of nuclear weapons as a means to avoid direct confrontation (a cowardly action) does not deserve to be called any better than any other country who took part in that mess called "the cold war". Millions died, were maimed, tortured any much more as a result of all sides playing 'Risk' with the world. Our whole planet is now more radioactive through 'boys' showing off their 'toys'.. In certain respects I wonder (as I don't know the science) whether the hundreds of atomic weapons detonated have in some ways contributed to the increase in Leukaemia levels??

... Strontium 90 being a by product ....