02-28-2021, 02:13 PM
As a parallel, the KGB knew as few in the old Soviet Union knew that the system was a mess. Some reforms would humanize the system and make it seem less ominous. It knew that few people in the West wanted to roll back Communism in the Operation Barbarossa style -- even among Western reactionaries. It had more to fear from Iran or even Iraq with their criminal regimes devoid of any human virtue. Maybe if either regime did something inexcusable even NATO would be useful.
...speaking of the stupidity of overthrowing Mohammed Mossadegh... see also the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. Those are the two black marks on the Eisenhower administration, and for that the USA has paid with Fidel Castro and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who made no pretense of being in any way useful to American interests.
...speaking of the stupidity of overthrowing Mohammed Mossadegh... see also the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. Those are the two black marks on the Eisenhower administration, and for that the USA has paid with Fidel Castro and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who made no pretense of being in any way useful to American interests.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.