ABSTRACT
In the Soviet scenario, however, Stalin and his partners made radical efforts to disrupt any form of political dissidence or parallel forces that could oppose him by executing them or sending them to Gulags. Under Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union faced great internal and external changes in its dealings with irregular groups. The Soviet Union came out of World War II victorious with a powerful military, economy and intelligence that were kept “‘fresh” throughout the 1950s. The KGB differed from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) because the Soviet model was more centralised and directly controlled while the CIA pushed for an “outsourced” model. The Soviets usually influenced and often controlled the armies of client states by replicating the Soviet political administration, which placed informers throughout the armies’ ranks. In the Central American scenario, Soviet irregular operations were only possible because of Cuban support, given the distance and cultural differences. Soviet planners saw Cuba as the bridgehead of its underground operations.
