ABSTRACT
Americans have an astonishing stereotyped conception of the Soviet Union. When one travels through the Soviet Union, one is amazed to discover that Russian children in places as divergent as Moscow, Riga, Talinn, Yalta and so forth, all know that President Reagan is a warmonger. Fears of the Soviet Union are related to its controversial foreign policy. Western perceptions about the Soviet Union are under the impact of national prejudices fueled by ignorance and an inability to accept otherness and change, as well as by events that interact with previously held assumptions and traumatic memories. Western panic exaggerated the assumptions about the number of casualties in the Soviet Union and increased anger towards that country. Lack of reliable and valid methods for ascertaining the motives and perceptions of the Soviet Union makes the West - particularly the US - suspicious of its motives. The US has a particular penchant for data and information which can be quantified.
