To what extent was the communist threat abroad and at home genuine(United States)?

The Threat of Communism

There needs to be a clear understanding that communism is a political system of governance independent of any nation . That is to say regardless of the size and scope and power of the Soviet Union communism exists with or without the Soviet Union . The Soviet Union was an aggressive military-industrial to other nations as it sought to forcibly expand communist rule , as evidenced by its invasions of Hungary , Poland , etc . From this , communism became an interchangeable word with Soviet . This is inaccurate as communist parties have existed in

democracies for many centuries However , it is the Soviet Union that is most associated with communist expansion and threats

Was the communist threat real ? This requires a multifaceted answer that could take several volumes . The United States , for example , could not exist as a communist nation without completely dissolving its democracy constitution , etc . In that regard , communism equates to annihilation Now , there have been attempts to turn the United States into a communist regime by way of general elections . This failed so often that communism could be more regarded as a nuisance as opposed to a legitimate , viable threat . However , in terms of the US-Soviet relationship in the Cold War the threat was very , very real because it took military dimensions of Mutually Assured Destruction

It becomes impossible to discuss the threat of Soviet communism without acknowledging the Soviet desire for expansion in light of the Soviet 's enormous stockpile of nuclear weapons that were pointed by the Soviet Union towards the United States and Western Europe . These weapons included long range and short range missiles as well as smaller tactical and artillery based nuclear warheads . In addition to the massive nuclear /atomic arsenal , the Soviets also maintained a massive stockpile of chemical and biological weapons

In terms of conventional weapons , the Soviet Union 's infantry alone boasted one million soldiers . The massive volumes of tank brigades in Eastern Europe were so frightening to Western European nations that they required American nuclear protection (in the form of neutron bombs and short range nuclear missiles ) Europe 's fear was not without cause . In 1973 , after the Suez Canal incident , the Soviets directly threatened Paris and London with nuclear strikes

In addition , Soviet economic aid and weapons proliferation towards communist regimes in other parts of the world was significant . This would be best articulated in the Breshnev Doctrine which stated that half the world is socialist and the other half will become socialist (The implied threat here is the rest of the world will become socialist whether they wish to or not

There will be a counterargument presented that the United States had similar weapons and promoted similar ideals in the face of the expansion of democracy . This is true , hence the name Cold War . There was a war being conducted where each superpower was seeking to expand its sphere of influence while containing the other . Such is the nature of war

In to deal with the threat , the...