What To Do When The Russians Come: A Survivor’s Guide by Robert Conquest, John White
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Overview: This book was part of the huge multi-media effort in the mid-80s to scare the American public into paying for the Reagan defense buildup. (Others include Sir John Hackett’s “The Third World War”, the movie “Red Dawn”, and the Milton Bradley game “Fortress America”.) All have the same premise: the Soviets ARE COMING!!! All of them first terify you with visions of the massive Red War Machine marching down Main Street USA, then hold out the slender hope that IF (and only if) we spend the next 500 generations’ worth of US tax income, we might just stop those Red Scum…maybe.
Given what we now know about the state of the Soviet military at the time, this was pure paranoid hype. The Soviets did have the capability to nuke Omaha, but not to occupy it with ground troops. However, this book and its comrades did succeed in terrifying Western audiences into plumping for that $5 trillion deficit to pay for scads of expensive weapons. As such, it is a terribly instructive historical learning tool. Yes, the book is complete garbage as a representation of any kind of true reality, but as a window into the ways that those in charge can manipulate people through fear, it is an excellent book. If you are a history teacher, I highly recommend using excerpts to instruct your students on cold war propaganda. Just don’t be foolish enough to actually BELIEVE what Conquest and White are selling. One final note: it is quite honestly impossible to tell to what extent these commercial products were part of a coordinated administration/defense industry effort. Clearly, given what we know about the current government (and past governments) planting fake news, this is a possibility. On the other hand, so many millions of tax dollars were being spent scaring the American people in those days, that there was a ready-made market for this kind of fictional scare book. It may be that Conquest and White (as well as the others) were simply cashing in on a market already created in part by the US government. However, there is no doubt that whatever their intentions, they helped fuel the generally paranoid atmosphere of the times, and helped Ronnie run up that massive budget deficit that we are still paying for today. Enjoy!
Genre: Non-Fiction > History
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