From: utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!hplabsb!soreff
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: Re: Adventurism in Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, and El Salvador
Article-I.D.: hplabsb.1137
Posted: Sat Nov 20 21:34:40 1982
Received: Mon Nov 22 02:24:16 1982
References: cornell.3754

If adventurism is ill-considered or rash improvisation or experimentation,
especially in politics or foreign affairs, then should the absence of
consistent policy in the current and last administration be considered
adventurism? The dramatic shifts in policy (anti-pipeline sanctions (Reagan),
neutron bomb deployment (Carter)) look rather like improvisation. I would
normally consider adventurism to involve something more violent.
comment on relation to USSR:
(flame on) It doesn't MATTER how bloody their government is. Because the
USSR has nuclear weapons, there are very few plausible scenarios which would
get rid of their government and leave the US and Europe breathing. For the
forseeable future the US and USSR must live with each other if they are to
live at all. I think that the situation is roughly analogous to what would
have happened if some sort of truce had left Hitler in control of Europe,
and the same stalemate would prevail in that case. In the current situation
both sides have their internal problems (those of the USSR certainly worse
than those of the US) but almost no conceivable internal collapse would be
complete enough for one side to overpower the other without being blown up.
(flame off)				-Jeffrey Soreff