>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02/01/01 06:03PM >>>
The USSR quite sensibly backed off from nuclear war with the US over
Cuba--Khrushchev, unlike Kennedy, having more brains than testosterone. The
bet, not a crazy one, though wrong, in putting missiles in Cuba, was that
the US would respond sanely without postering. The assertion that the USSR
had an internationalist foreign policy is unsupported, and also nonsense.
(((((((((
CB: It is supported by the fact of their supporting Cuba, and many other national
liberation movements. Your assertion that it is nonsense is what is unsupported .
))))))))))
The USSR supported national liberation and socialism where it conformed to
Soviet natioan interests, and not where not.
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CB: Confronting the U.S. to the point of potential nuclear war was not Soviet national
interests. It was dangerous to Soviet national interests. Why risk getting nuc'ed for
a small island with no net economic flow to the Soviet Union or any other material
flow to the Soviet Union ? That is not in Soviet national interest. What did helping
Viet Nam do to help the SU materially ? Very little.
(((((((((
Stalin himself crushed the
Spanish revolutioon. He sold Greece and tried to sell Yugo to the West at
Yalta. He established an imperial buffer zone in East Europe that was
maintained by force in Berlin, Hungary, Czecho, and Poland. I could go
on.Soviet foreign policy is only internationalist for someline like you,
Charles, who identifies the interests of the world working class with those
of the Soviet state.
))))))))))))
CB: No, the Soviet foreign policy was in fact internationalist.
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The USSR was not a _capitalist_ exploiter, but it wasa
traditional great power in its foreign relations, looking to the narrow
national interests of the state, not to the interests of a wider group,
such as the working class. --jks
>
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>After the mid 20's, you can
>get a lot further in predicting Soviet foreign policy using a straight line
>national interest calculation than an ideological one.
>
>((((((((((
>
>CB: How was almost going to nuclear war with the U.S. over Cuba in the
>Soviet narrow national interest ? How was one way economic support to Cuba
>and other countries in Soviet national interest ?
>
>The SU had internationalist foreign policy
>
>
>
>Sure, the USSR supported some national liberation movements--that is one of
>the few half-way decent things it did. But it never did that when it didn't
>seem that this would not further great power goals.
>
>(((((((((((
>
>CB: The SU didn't act like a capitalist great power. It didn't have
>colonies , i.e. economically exploitative relations with the other
>socialist and socialist path nations
>
>
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