Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Race to Destruction
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
299
attempt its military conquest. In the early Cold War years, there was
nearly universal agreement that the Soviets, while eager to expand their
influence, desired to avoid a military engagement.” 47 “American military
analysts were most impressed with Soviet weaknesses and
vulnerabilities,” and estimated that it would take 15 years for the USSR
to overcome wartime losses in manpower and industry. Even with
“Herculean efforts,” American intelligence did not expect the USSR to
reach the pre-World War II levels of the US within 15 to 20 years. As
Cold War conflicts intensified, US military officials anticipated “hostile
and defensive Soviet reactions” to American initiatives such as fortifying
Turkey as an offensive base against the USSR or during the Berlin crisis,
attributed by US army planners to “actions on the part of the Western
Powers” (their phrase, in a report to Eisenhower).
The fear on the part of US planners of “losing control of Eurasia” lay
“less in American assessments of Soviet military capabilities and shortterm
military intentions than in appraisals of economic and political
conditions throughout Europe and Asia,” Leffler concludes. The CIA
warned in 1947 that “The greatest danger to the security of the United
States is the possibility of economic collapse in Western Europe and the
consequent accession to power of Communist elements.” Assistant
Secretary of War Howard Peterson urged “emphasis on strengthening
the economic and social dikes against Soviet communism” rather than
preparation for war. We have already noted Dean Acheson’s expressed
concern over the dangers of democratic politics in France and Italy, as
he browbeat congressional leaders into accepting the Truman Doctrine
in 1947. In 1948, the National Security Council reiterated the
longstanding estimate that the USSR was unlikely to resort to war, while
warning that “Soviet domination of the potential power of Eurasia,
whether achieved by armed aggression or by political and subversive