re: What was the point of the Cold War?

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What did the USSR stand to gain by promoting communist governments around the globe?

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Damn, if we'd only left them alone, everything would have be peachy... History teaches us so much if we're willing to learn it.

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I can understand why Stalin wanted a buffer zone under his control, but due to another military invasion not an ideological one. What did the USSR stand to gain by promoting communist governments around the globe?

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You understand why Stalin wanted a buffer zone? Was Stalin simply after a "buffer zone" when he colluded to invade Poland in 1939? What about when he invaded Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia? Or Finland? All of these things occurred prior to any foreign country invading the USSR. And the Soviet territorial claims did not end there and had it not been for the invasion, Romania was very likely next on the Soviet agenda.

The USSR was an expansionist and monstrous state. To believe they were anything less than that prior to the end of WWII is to be completely ignorant of history.

Had it not been for nuclear weapons it is highly likely that a massive war would have taken place in Europe following WWII.

What did the USSR stand to gain? What did they stand to gain when they invaded all these nations in 1939/40 and then essentially invaded and occupied them again in 1945 and beyond? Geopolitical leverage. Power, resources, personnel, wealth, influence, and manifestation of the Communist ideal of international expansion.