Without nukes did the Soviet Union ever pose a credible existential military threat to the USA?

No. They posed a credible existential military threat to Western Europe.

this thread, and the comments that follow, make me wonder how people in this era got so stupid

Because they had a fuckload of nukes and if they crushed mainland Europe, even America would have a ton of trouble taking it back.

Also being buttbuddies with China until the Split.

Hello from /k I have been called for the most important question of 20th century military history.

> Without nukes did the Soviet Union ever pose a credible existential military threat to the USA?

To the US main land directly? No but they did have nukes and even with out them they did threaten western Europe very badly. If western Europe could be taken with force and then held it the long term outlook for the US would not be good. Also there was counties in south America that were very friendly to them. That matters a lot more then it sounds to our modern ears. War in between South American nations was not unthinkable in the 1950s & 1960s like what it is now days.

Without nukes they wouldn't have been a threat to the US mainland no, though they still could have threatened western europe by sheer numbers

>reactionary forces

>So why did the US paint them as a threat to themselves?

The Cold War was mostly a string of successes for Communism; Eastern Europe, China, N.Korea, most of Africa, Vietnam, Cuba, etc. it was only in the end that the house of cards collapsed.

>that giant mcdonalds sign over the tiny soviet union flag

I've seen tons of these pictures of Muscovites lining up for Micky D's, is it simply because of the novelty of a western food chain (Or western market force in general) opening up in Russia for the first time, or was fast food just that strange of concept to Russians? I could understand opening day being packed like mad, but there's a load of these pictures of different places and different times.

Also, I heard blue jeans were met with a similar reaction, not sure if true.

I don't know but I note that about 1/4th of the guys in that pic are wearing jeans and/or jean vests so it doesn't look like it was either particularly rare or particularly fashionable (compared to today)

Denim is old as shit so I don't know how that blue jeans thing would be true.

they wanted to know what capitalism taste like

It tastes like heat lamped faux beef sandwiches and salty molded potato sticks

>about 1/4th of the guys in that pic are wearing jeans

How do you figure? I see the one guy in the bottom/front of the pic with the green coat wearing jeans (and he’s probably a Western journalist) and another guy standing on line to the left (light blue coat, white beanie hat) and maybe a guy way to the left in front of the truck.

>It tastes like heat lamped faux beef sandwiches and salty molded potato sticks

And the fact is, it was better then they what they were used to.

Ignoring nukes, the Red Army of 1946 could still pretty much sweep over western europe with ease.

The Soviets mastered the art of bait and subversion, the plan was for the US to spend money in military shit for a war that wouldn't happen, this way the populace get mad over that spenditure.

Pretty much the opposite is true, one of the reasons the USSR collapsed was they tried to keep us with US military expenditure.

>if you aren't a neo-fuedalist, you're reactionary

mcdonalnds is the most delicious food known to man

as my friend said it's chemically designed to be delicious, if you dont like it, you're pretending