“Because the U.N. Commission felt it was good therapy to let them work, they got everything they asked for, at U.S. expense.”

They were on the receiving end of a secret alliance between the American communists running the UN commission and the communists in the camps. Put it this way, if you asked the UN commission what purpose the “good therapy” had they’d say something the military wanted to hear about making it easier to keep the prisoners under control or some such but if you performed an experiment and allowed one group the therapeutic labor of running their own factories and the other not, which camp would have better results? What would the UN Commission say if you proposed running that experiment? They wouldn’t say “oh great, we’re anxious to have our ideas tested” would they? No, they’d say something in 50s psych talk about authoritarian personalities — in the 2020s they’d talk about systemic racism — just verbal weapons to break down the ability to see things as they are — that the commission is working against the interests of the US military.

Similar to the advocates for social workers being sent to crimes instead of cops. They say it’s aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the justice system and reducing crime, but what do the results show? What does it say when no one actually checks those results when assessing the success of the program?

If they were fools, it was for not realizing that their enemies were operating in every control structure above them that they couldn’t look at and for not realizing that they had men with guns who obeyed them and could solve that problem without too much trouble.

Bonus: you get to claim the moral high ground, whatever you do, because they invaded.

Most of this is out the window if they successfully infiltrate and bide their time. But they would be trying to do that anyway, so it’s best considered as a separate problem.

Oh, and of course we can infiltrate, sabotage and undermine a potential enemy on the other side of the planet. Just don’t be so reckless as to try to invade.

In this world, there’s no need to go out of your way looking for a fight. The fight will come to you.

I’m not sure that would have worked during the cold war. Not saying it wouldn’t but look how aggressive the commies were. The US has done a lot of horrible things during the cold war but we don’t come close to the brutality of the commies.

At some point if they ruled enough of the earth there would have been no defending the Americas.

On the other hand our cold war involvement has a direct line to our present degraded position from the corrupt institutions we created to fight the the commies however we could without regard to morality.

Absent that, it will backfire badly. If you try too hard to love your enemies you will end up betraying your friends and yourself. Love those who deserve love, hate those who deserve hate and be moderately kind where you’re not sure.

And don’t go all the way across the planet to make an enemy. Here’s an alternate history for you: suppose the United States had adhered to a policy of never fighting a war anywhere except the North American continent, and fighting any war on the continent with unflinching resolve and brutality? Let Europe sort itself out. Should they fail, let the Wehrmacht be butchered in eastern Canada.