Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "The Cold War" channel.

There was a cartoon in a Soviet newspaper of a button manufacturing factory which achieved its fiver year plan for button production by producing one giant button. I assume they had to produce a certain weight in buttons. The fact that it was printed in a newspaper tells you much of what was happening in Soviet Russia. The fact that the cartoonist could do this cartoon; and that it was printed by the newspaper; and that it got passed the censors, none of which should have happened. Even more interesting is that the authorities in these Eastern European countries never caught on the what was happening. There were a number of very popular cartoon series on TV in Eastern European countries which were very subversive but because of what seems to have been a total lack of a sense of humour amongst these authoritarian governments they rarely realised they were being mocked. Because western goods were so popular westerners in Soviet Russia were mugged for their jeans.
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Beats all those New Year resolutions which we all know we are never going to keep. Such as I am not getting drunk like that again.
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Could you look at the part played by the Soviet Union in starting both the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Apparently in both wars the Soviets were feeding false information to the Arabs that Israel was on the verge of attacking its Arab neighbours which pushed the Arabs into attacking Israel. Israeli intelligence did know about the planned attack in the Six Day War which helped them mount a preemptive attack. But the fact that Israel was surprised by the Yom Kippur War would suggest that the notion Israel was about to attack their Arab neighbours was false.
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Interestingly both the Gestapo and the Stasi worked by getting a huge number of ordinary people to inform on each other.
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It is hard not to think there is a connection but that has been deigned. Though personally I also think it is based on the F-104.
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Sometime ago I watched a video about an incident which happened in Poland after a huge Warsaw Pact exercise before the collapse of the Soviet Union and is a reference to the shortages in Russia at that time. The incident happened at a Polish railways station when Russian troops were getting ready to go home. A number of Poles started to talk to the Russians giving them things like chewing gum, things the Russians could not get at home. They started taking pictures of each other with the Russian troops, being very comradely. What the Russians were not aware of at the time was that the Poles, who did not suffer the same shortages as the Russians, were in fact mocking the Russians by giving them items they could not get at home but the Poles could. They were in effect saying that your country may be bigger then ours and you thing you are in charge but we are better off then you.
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As they say. Ignorance is bliss.
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An invasion which was reliant on inexperienced conscripts which would not be opposed by the US. This political decision quickly turns into a giant miscalculation. Sounds familiar
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The British Royal Air Force worked very closely with America at this time with regards to photo reconnaissance. When Eisenhour banned USAF flights over Russia the RAF took over flying from USAF bases in England using USAF aircraft. They would then do similar missions using the RAF's own Canberra photo reconnaissance aircraft. I have seen interviews with a former RAF pilot who were flying the U-2 in the late 50's. Check out U2 RAF pilot W/C Robbie Robinson. Interview with Paul Lashmar 16 May 1993 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64a3d1yES4 Apparently once at altitude the pilot had to keep the aircrafts speed within some 10 knots of required level flight speed for fear of ripping the wings off. Hats off to the pilots for that feat.
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It is interesting how many people who served their various countries kept a record of it. And in many cases this was probably the only time in there lives that they did so.
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@trizvanov There was a documentary about it which was made several years ago. I came across it on YouTube. It did look well made like it had been produced either by or for a TV channel. I was hoping that this channel would take a look at the story to see what they made of it. I never read the Daily Mail. There is only one use for that rag.
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@itzikashemtov6045 It is interesting how close Syria came to winning back the Golan Heights during Yom Kippur. Unlike the Six Day War the Syrians where much better motivated and were causing Israel serious problems. I believe the Syrians had made changes within the officer corps and stopped promoting party members over non party members who were much better qualified.
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