User Panel
Posted: 4/30/2015 7:18:28 PM EDT
I grew up in the 80's and the 90's, so I always grew up knowing that eventually there would be a war between the USA and the USSR. I practiced hiding from the effects of nuclear weapons under my desk at school. I watched movies like Red Dawn and identified with these characters because I knew that someday I'd be duking it out with the Soviets, maybe right here in the USA. I watched The Day After and wondered if that's really how it was going to be. I didn't care about athletics, but watched the Olympics JUST to see the USA compete head to head with our arch enemy. I felt completely engaged as an American because anything else was just communist, and commies were the worst thing you could be. No one had to tell anyone that you were either for us or against us, it was as plain as the writing on the wall.
Then all that changed with glasnost and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. I felt adrift; who was our enemy now? Having the USSR as an enemy defined us as Americans, the way that Lex Luthor made Superman who he was, or the way that The Joker made Batman who he was. Sadaam Hussein wasn't going to cut it, we were done with him in 100 hours. Now we've had "The Terrorists" as enemies for the last 15-20 years, depending on how you keep score, but it's hard to feel as engaged as an American when your nemesis is some vague group of individuals who lurk in the shadows, who changes their name every 10 days and who don't even send athletes to the Olympics! Anyone else out there miss the Cold War? |
|
Can't really say I miss the Cold War. But I do get where your coming from. At least the nation knew the enemy and war was likely to be conventional if any
|
|
I'm glad the old Cold War is over. The Wolfowicz doctrine is lighting a new one and we're not at the point where we're exchanging bullets, but it's close. We had better leadership that was careful about conflict. Now we have a man-child as the Occupier in Chief of the Wine Haus and he's doing everything he can to dismantle and weaken this nation. When he's done, we'll be no better off than any other turd world nation.
|
|
I am 40. I grew up in the 70's and 80's as kid. I miss those times. Hell I even miss the 90's now. I hate how the world is now. Only good thing is I have a wealth of knowledge now,and I make good money so I can buy the things I like.
It's ok to be an adult. |
|
I have always considered 1980 Hockey to be pay back for 1972 Basketball
|
|
Quoted:
I'm glad the old Cold War is over. The Wolfowicz doctrine is lighting a new one and we're not at the point where we're exchanging bullets, but it's close. We had better leadership that was careful about conflict. Now we have a man-child as the Occupier in Chief of the Wine Haus and he's doing everything he can to dismantle and weaken this nation. When he's done, we'll be no better off than any other turd world nation. View Quote See, that's another thing right there. In the Cold War, everyone thought Jimmy Carter was an idiot, but it was very fringy to believe that he was intentionally weakening us so that we'd collapse as a nation. Nowadays, it's damn near mainstream to think that the president is either selling us out to the international bankers, or that he's a closet marxist who's setting us up to be taken over. It feels more like we're headed for civil war than world war. I hope we find a nice legitimate nation to be our feared enemy and unite us all the way we were all once (more or less) united. Maybe China will get there someday... |
|
Quoted:
So you're putting together a ISIS Olympic team, huh Coach? View Quote Can you IMAGINE what that would do for the ratings? I'd watch every event that we competed against them in, even the boring ones. You'd have to be careful though, especially with events like fencing and the Javelin throw. I don't think I'd trust them with the torch either. |
|
Don't you fret OP. Expanding NATO to the Russian border and supporting color revolutions in Ukraine will give you that cold war warm&fuzzy feeling you long for...just give it a little more time.
|
|
Now Socialists run for President thanks to the Democrat party.
|
|
It's not just missing the old days, it's missing something that was passed down from generation to generation. My grandpa hated the Soviets, and he taught my dad to hate the Soviets, and my dad taught me the evils of collectivism, and now socialism is barely even a dirty word now. We've got legit self avowed socialists in national office eyeing the presidency, and barely anyone cares.
ETA You beat me to it, Master_Shake |
|
I remember Duck & Cover growing up in Cali 60-70's
like it would've helpped |
|
Twenty somethings have no idea about the cold war. Mention duck and cover drills and the little peckerwoods think you're full of shit.
|
|
|
I don't. It was bullshit when that commie bastard killed Apollo Creed.
|
|
In a way I also. Our Military was not a as pussified as it is now. Submarineing was different then also. Back in the days "Range to ___________ 1 is 2000 yards, bearing 025" The CO replies "lets get a little closer, Hell lets under hull it" Now..... "Range to _______________1 is 20,000 yards bearing 025!!!!!!!!! TURN TURN run away we are to close!!!!!!!!!"
Yes I understand that technology is better now on both sides but still our Subs are much more quieter. |
|
Quoted:
Simpler times View Quote That's it exactly. We knew who we were because we knew who we hated and who hated us. They had a chunk of land, a military, a leader, a flag, a hockey team...we didn't have to track them down to launch a missile at them, because we knew where they slept at night. There was no one on TV telling us how lots of Soviet Sub commanders were really nice guys and that it was just a few bad apples that we needed to reach out to...we needed to kill them all because they were godless COMMIES and if we didn't kill them they'd eat our babies. Now everyone on TV tries to impress everyone else with their nuanced opinions about each of the 100 different varieties of enemies we have, and they seem to recoil at calling them or think of them as enemies, instead preferring to try to cast them as allies we haven't met yet. |
|
|
|
Russia still has the ability to end our life as we know it, and we theirs, even with much smaller nuclear arsenals.
However, the conventional threat to Western Europe is greatly diminished. Soviet infiltration of our college campuses was widespread during the Vietnam War. The ideological battle was lost on our college campuses by the late 1970's, and those students are now widely in positions of power in our government. |
|
|
I'm just happy to be scared. Doesn't matter who's the enemy.
'murica. |
|
Quoted:
I don't. It was bullshit when that commie bastard killed Apollo Creed. View Quote I completely forgot about that movie. That's what I mean, we all hated that 7' tall Soviet manmonster, and the premise of the movie was realistic. Do you think Al Queda is going to send us a boxer to fight? |
|
Soviets > Jihadists
If you would've asked me in 1992 if I miss the Cold War, I would've laughed. But I have far more respect for the Commies than for the ROPers. |
|
Quoted:
Russia still has the ability to end our life as we know it, and we theirs, even with much smaller nuclear arsenals. However, the conventional threat to Western Europe is greatly diminished. Soviet infiltration of our college campuses was widespread during the Vietnam War. The ideological battle was lost on our college campuses by the late 1970's, and those students are now widely in positions of power in our government. View Quote It's hard to imagine us getting it on with the Russians now. For crying out loud, they're the ones who're giving us a lift to the space station now. That's another thing I miss, the whole paranoia that anyone among us could be a Soviet spy. Now it's pretty easy to figure out who among us is an enemy agent, or at least it's easy to figure out where to start looking...Michigan. |
|
Duck and cover drills growing up in the 80's and 90's?
You sure you didn't grow up in North Korea? |
|
Quoted:
I'm just happy to be scared. Doesn't matter who's the enemy. 'murica. View Quote I'm barely scared anymore. There's just not the same CERTAINTY that something is going to happen, the way it was back in the good old days. I wasn't just scared something was going to happen then, I was CERTAIN something was going to happen. |
|
Quoted:
Don't you fret OP. Expanding NATO to the Russian border and supporting color revolutions in Ukraine will give you that cold war warm&fuzzy feeling you long for...just give it a little more time. View Quote Word is that Putin made it pretty clear they would nuke us if we went in the Crimea or tried to take it back. That is why would stood down so quickly. |
|
Quoted:
I'm barely scared anymore. There's just not the same CERTAINTY that something is going to happen, the way it was back in the good old days. I wasn't just scared something was going to happen then, I was CERTAIN something was going to happen. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
I'm just happy to be scared. Doesn't matter who's the enemy. 'murica. I'm barely scared anymore. There's just not the same CERTAINTY that something is going to happen, the way it was back in the good old days. I wasn't just scared something was going to happen then, I was CERTAIN something was going to happen. Given the stories that came out about that Soviet who decided to take our missles in the ass rather than retaliate, then turned out to be a big computer glitch, it's amazing war didn't happen. |
|
Quoted: I'm barely scared anymore. There's just not the same CERTAINTY that something is going to happen, the way it was back in the good old days. I wasn't just scared something was going to happen then, I was CERTAIN something was going to happen. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I'm just happy to be scared. Doesn't matter who's the enemy. 'murica. I'm barely scared anymore. There's just not the same CERTAINTY that something is going to happen, the way it was back in the good old days. I wasn't just scared something was going to happen then, I was CERTAIN something was going to happen. |
|
Can't say I miss the Cold War, but the time I spent in Germany during the Cold War, were some of the best times of my life.
|
|
Hindsight is 20/20 and all that. It's easy to look back and get all misty-eyed, knowing now how it all turned out. But the specter of nuclear annihilation was a very real fear for most people. As a kid/young adult, my dad (now 62) thought he'd be long dead by now, as a result of the Cold War going hot. |
|
The klaxon would go off. The air crews would run out to the alert F-4's, loaded with nuclear weapons. The taxi gates would be opened while the planes fired up. "Please let it be a drill, please let it be a drill". That part sucked.
|
|
Quoted:
Hindsight is 20/20 and all that. It's easy to look back and get all misty-eyed, knowing now how it all turned out. But the specter of nuclear annihilation was a very real fear for most people. As a kid/young adult, my dad (now 62) thought he'd be long dead by now, as a result of the Cold War going hot. View Quote But it glued the nation together. With the exception of a small number or the intellectual elites and people who felt like they knew better, we ALL hated the Soviets, and we all did it TOGETHER! |
|
You missed it OP. The really cool stuff happened during the 50's and 60's on the cold war front. We drove them into bankruptcy during the 80's when Ron told them we were going to put up a missile defense above the earth.
|
|
I'll tell you one thing, the Olympics have never seen the excitement and drama that was there during the Cold War years. Picking who to cheer for was pretty easy: America and her allies, or Communist Bloc countries. Russia and and Bulgarian weightlifters, Cuban boxers, East German swimmers and Chinese gymnasts, these are the people who would have made Red Dawn a reality and by God, they needed to be stopped!
Take the day off of work, spend the evening with the entire family around the TV, just do whatever it took to be there watching when one more gold medal was awarded to keep the world free of Soviet domination. Man, those were some great days for Olympic competition. Arguably the greatest days. |
|
Quoted:
Russia still has the ability to end our life as we know it, and we theirs, even with much smaller nuclear arsenals. However, the conventional threat to Western Europe is greatly diminished. Soviet infiltration of our college campuses was widespread during the Vietnam War. The ideological battle was lost on our college campuses by the late 1970's, and those students are now widely in positions of power in our government. View Quote This in spades! We "won" the cold war beating the soviet communist military. Yet, they are winning the "long war" with their influence over our higher education and thus each generation of college students becomes more and more and more left... BIGGER_HAMMER |
|
Quoted: This in spades! We "won" the cold war beating the soviet communist military. Yet, they are winning the "long war" with their influence over our higher education and thus each generation of college students becomes more and more and more left... BIGGER_HAMMER View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Russia still has the ability to end our life as we know it, and we theirs, even with much smaller nuclear arsenals. However, the conventional threat to Western Europe is greatly diminished. Soviet infiltration of our college campuses was widespread during the Vietnam War. The ideological battle was lost on our college campuses by the late 1970's, and those students are now widely in positions of power in our government. This in spades! We "won" the cold war beating the soviet communist military. Yet, they are winning the "long war" with their influence over our higher education and thus each generation of college students becomes more and more and more left... BIGGER_HAMMER |
|
I might have missed it if I didn't do the two most recent hot wars.
|
|
I kinda miss it too. I was still in uniform when the Soviet Union imploded. It was glorious.
That, and I didn't have any gray hair. Gray hair sucks. |
|
Obviously you never received "the briefing", knew about the Fulda gap, and how short our life expectancy would be. Being stationed in Germany, going through REFORGER, EDRE drills, 30,45-60+ day FTX's, AREA MUD, Graf, Hoenfels, destroying farmers fields, etc................. The Cold War sucked if you were combat Arms. Try running PT in an M17, and you'll appreciate a new kind of hell. Fond, no. When we had down time, great f*cking times!!!! I did 7.2 years of Foreign Service OCONUS, CONUS duty was cake.
ETA: I remember guys cutting the guts out of their M17 gas mask filters, you could tell because they were usually the guys that would go through their ration card of smokes in 3 weeks. |
|
Yep. It was good in its way. We had a space race, an arms race, etc.
|
|
I vaguely remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. In later years one of the things that gave us comfort was that the Russians were fairly rational, i.e.: they didn't want to die either, not like the ragheads with their 72 virgins bullshit. A friend on my shooting team used to fly B-36 bombers and has a few tales to tell. According to him all the aircrews figured that if the balloon went up they were pretty much guaranteed a one-way trip.
|
|
In one sense, good as in you knew who the enemy was. Bad as in everything we know could've been gone in seconds if some Soviet idiot had gotten mad or drunk and hit the launch button.
|
|
Sign up for the ARFCOM weekly newsletter and be entered to win a free ARFCOM membership. One new winner* is announced every week!
You will receive an email every Friday morning featuring the latest chatter from the hottest topics, breaking news surrounding legislation, as well as exclusive deals only available to ARFCOM email subscribers.
AR15.COM is the world's largest firearm community and is a gathering place for firearm enthusiasts of all types.
From hunters and military members, to competition shooters and general firearm enthusiasts, we welcome anyone who values and respects the way of the firearm.
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter to receive firearm news, product discounts from your favorite Industry Partners, and more.
Copyright © 1996-2024 AR15.COM LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.
AR15.Com reserves the right to overwrite or replace any affiliate, commercial, or monetizable links, posted by users, with our own.