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Trump has had 8+ years to assemble the "best people," and he's once again chosen the ultimate fanatical blowhard, Seb Gorka, for a top National Security job that's not even subject to Senate confirmation. "Trump gets tricked into poor personnel choices" is laughable at this point https://x.com/mtracey/status/1860747304774340717

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From Quora: Thierry Etienne Joseph Rotty

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Former Central Planning at NATOOct 30

What would've happened if the USSR never de-Stalinized? Would've Beria, Malenkov, or Molotov succeeded Stalin? How would've the Cold War played out?

in 1953, Beria was briefly the strong man. He released prisoners and wanted reforms such as more personal freedom, semi-autonomy for the Baltic States and Ukraine, and a slow transitions to a capitalist system with good relations with the West.

He was executed because his policies were seen as being too radical.

In 1954, the Soviet leadership wanted to join NATO, transition slowly to a capitalist society, and introduce a multi party system, basically what Beria had aimed for a year earlier.

This was supported by all NATO countries except the US.

The 1954 minutes of the National Securing Council meetings under Eisenhower are chilling to the bone. It was decided the Soviet Union needed to be destroyed, having them as a friend and ally was not an option. The existing war plans were updated to include biological attack options for Strategic Air Command. There were three options:

All out nuclear attack followed by biological strikes. This was part of Project Control.

Continuing to support dissident forces within the Soviet Union and try to start a civil war. This was a continuation of Project Wiggart.

Destroy the Soviet Union economically by increasing the arms race. This is what happened as Wiggart failed and the advent of the R-7A ICBM meant the Soviets could now hit US soil so Control was abandoned.

The Cold War would have played out the way it did historically. The US wanted to destroy the Soviet Union no matter what which is exactly what happened. Luckily the nuclear attack options with additional biological attacks never materialized.

The biological warfare options were so horrible that in 1958 General LeMay formally asked Eisenhower Strategic Air Command be relieved of biological warfare attacks (they had 45 B-29 converted for such attacks).

Basically, it didn’t matter what happened inside the Soviet Union, the US wanted the country destroyed.

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