• Wrufieotnak@feddit.org
    54·
    20 days ago

    Both sides were the aggressors in general and each side had moments where they were the more active part leading to confrontations.

    I don’t think the cold war can be described as one single conflict with a clear aggressor, which is the whole point why it is called a cold war.

    I’m not knowledgeable enough if there are statistics about which side was more in the wrong or did more aggressor stuff.

    But for me, knowing that the USA did the Iran and CIA stuff while the USSR did Afghanistan and KGB stuff is enough for me to decide both were elitist assholes that didn’t care for normal humans but just wanted to increase their own power.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
      24·
      20 days ago

      But for me, knowing that the USA did the Iran and CIA stuff while the USSR did Afghanistan and KGB stuff is enough for me to decide both were elitist assholes that didn’t care for normal humans but just wanted to increase their own power.

      That’s actually a pretty solid take from what I know about it. Both powers were being total assholes and wanted control over as much of the world as they could get. USA had strong weapons power but USSR had strong soft power, bringing social programs to people who desperately needed them. Roads and bridges and such.

          • deafboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            16 days ago

            Believe it or not, these were invited by a certain asshole sitting in the government at the time. I can only assume this is how the friendly visit looked like back in the day. Different time, different customs…

  • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    20 days ago

    It depended on where in the world you were. Both Russia and America wanted to avoid full on conflict so they established proxy wars to try weaken the other. America was certainly the aggressor in Vietnam and Korea while Russia was the aggressor in Cuba and arguably in Afghanistan amongst a whole myriad of other conflicts

    • Wrufieotnak@feddit.org
      9·
      20 days ago

      I mean Cuba was a crisis and dangerous for sure, and the USSR pushed it to the near breaking point, but I still find it funny that the USA got nervous when strategic rockets were close to them, something that was true for Moscow nearly the whole time.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      20 days ago

      while Russia was the aggressor in Cuba and arguably in Afghanistan

      Fucking pardon me? Russia literally tried to take over Afghanistan after the US gave them weapons to protect them from Russia.

      “We are not afraid of the Russians, but we are afraid of their helicopters.”

      – Some Afghani

      edit: I’d say that the USSR wasn’t really the aggressor in Cuba, that was Fidel and his cohort. Castro literally reached out to the Soviets because he needed help after his revolution.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
    3·
    20 days ago

    Nobody that’s why it was cold. Both sides were ramping up and preparing for the other to attack. They engaged in proxy wars and demonstrations of their power and capabilities. But the cost of attacking was everything and neither was willing to sacrifice life on earth without being attacked first.

  • atro_city@fedia.io
    2·
    20 days ago

    Neither and both. They both wanted their world view to dominate and did so by influencing a bunch of countries. The US fucked up all of South America during that time, Afghanistan, Iran, Vietnam, Korea, and probably a few countries in Africa. The Soviet Union wasn’t innocent in all of this fighting their proxy wars against the US.