john ford you know that is just as incorrect as the 'missle gap' was.
In 500 years, I'll be dead. I guess it really wouldn't matter. I just find Reagan's ignorance about things like that overwhelming. The same as I found Jimmy Carter to be utterly unfit to be President. I think though, by the time Reagn was President, the people were kidding themselves if they thought the Soviets wouldn't collapse soon.
On January 20th, 1981, the USSR was more powerful than the US.
Hah!
john ford you know that is just as incorrect as the 'missle gap' was.
Actually, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a serious military analysis that shows that had the US and USSR come to blows in W. Europe that we'd have won. The Soviets had vastly superior armor and in far greater numbers to their NATO counterparts. The Soviets were closer to the field of battle that their US counterparts. NATO did not have nearly as compatible of weapon systems as the USSR.
I also think you'd be hard pressed to demonstrate that the US had superior nuclear capabilities in 1981. The Soviets had more warheads and, unlike the US, their missiles were usually mobile negating any possible counterforce capability the US might have otherwise had.
America had an advantage in the air, but wars aren't won by airpower. There is an old joke that one Soviet general met another Soviet general in Paris and asked him, "By the way, who won the air war?" Ultimately, US air superiority against Soviet fighters would not have been sufficient to stem the superior Soviet armored and artillery forces, and since stealth technology was not in service yet, US aircraft would have their operations hindered by Soviet SAMs and AAA even if they did achieve victory against the Soviet air force.
At sea, we'd have a draw. Soviet aircraft and tactics for attacking American carriers were sufficiently advanced that the US would not have been able to effectively deploy or re-supply forces. Soviet submarines would not make this effort any easier.
The Soviet military was already proving its superiority in subduing Afghan militias. This contrasted greatly with America's disaster in Vietnam. It was not until later when the USSR was strained by the US arms buildup and CIA activity that they faltered in central Asia.
Economically, the USSR was behind the US, but there is no doubt that our lead wasn't growing, but was staying constant. During the decade of the 1970s, the USSR managed to keep pace with the USA.
