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From: lmaher@uokvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Female VEEP - (nf)
Message-ID: <5000102@uokvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Aug-84 19:50:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uokvax.5000102
Posted: Thu Aug  2 19:50:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 23:46:06 EDT
References: <193@qusavx.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:qusavx:-19300:uokvax:5000102:000:1305
Nf-From: uokvax!lmaher    Aug  2 18:50:00 1984

#R:qusavx:-19300:uokvax:5000102:000:1305
uokvax!lmaher    Aug  2 18:50:00 1984

/***** uokvax:net.politics / ames!al /  1:06 pm  Jul 31, 1984 */
In any case, the party might gut the military.  The military is a serious
threat to the party's rule.  Stalin, you might remember, killed off more
than half of the officers in the Red Army in the thirties, one of the reasons
Hitler did so well in '41 and '42.
/* ---------- */

I just thought I'd dispute this.  The military is  no  threat  to
the  party,  because it is entirely dominated by the KGB.  On the
other hand,  every  Soviet  leader  has  gained  power  with  the
approval  of  the  military,  but  eventually cuts them back.  If
they're cut back too far, the backlash *can*  hurt  the  premier,
e.g. Khruschev.

The enforced lack of initiative hampered the Red  Army  far  more
than  the  purges  did.   Soviet military doctrine does not allow
room for imagination  or  initiative  by  junior  officers.   The
Soviet military is certainly aware of the problem (it's *killing*
them in Afghanistan), but it's  simply  too  dangerous  to  train
junior  officers  to  think for themselves.  During WW 2, Germans
reported that  Russian  soldiers  sometimes  wouldn't  even  take
advantage  of cover unless they recieved orders to do so, and the
most common message back to HQ was "What do we do now?"

	Carl
	..!ctvax!uokvax!lmaher