General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Price of America Having the Greatest Military in the World? It's Destroying the Country [View all]Martin Eden
(12,888 posts)But as you pointed out, Stalin was amoral and an expansionist to begin with and would likely have imposed Soviet rule over Eastern Europe in any event.
The point is, the OP attempts to blame Truman's negotiating stance for the drawing of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War. What can't be ignored is that Stalin was a monster who slaughtered more human beings under his rule than perished in Hitler's Final Solution, and Soviet tyranny oppressed more people for a longer duration than the relatively short-lived Third Reich.
Within the context of the OP, we're talking about the wealth of the United States being wastefully spent on the military when it could have solved so many of our domestic ills. I wholehertedly agree with that premise, but I draw the line at dubious interpretations of history. There may have been missed opportunities for detente with the USSR from the beginning, but IMO it would have been foolish not to have a legitimate military deterrent to Soviet expansion westward into more of Europe.