ABSTRACT
Russian people fighting for their soil against Hitler under the leadership of 'Uncle Joe', later the 'evil empire'. Behind the common imperative of resistance to it, there were always different views of what the US ought to demand and aim for; but, in turn, behind these divergences, two constant features predominated. One was the tendency, through most of the Cold War era, to exaggerate the might (military, economic and even ideological) of the adversary – a tendency fed by the complexity and constancy of the threat that required America's massive involvement, as well as by the need to point to the monstrosity of the Soviet system in order to justify that involvement, and by the fears that resulted from the loss of America's invulnerability.11 When the weaknesses of the Soviet system began to emerge, there were many who claimed that this made the USSR only more dangerous and potentially aggressive.
