China switching sides is the factor. USSR was never going to outspend the US let alone NATO.
> Sorry, what? You're responding to someone who was born behind the Iron Curtain, and you're saying that Western "bullets, tanks, missiles, etc" kept him/her under soviet rule?
Soviet "bullets, tanks, missiles, etc" did. Our bullets, tanks, missiles, etc kept japan, germany, korea, etc under US rule.
> As in, if the west had been militarily weak, the CPSU would have stopped occupying?
Do you think poland was occupied without bullets, tanks, missiles? Do you think korea, germany, japan were occupied by accident?
> Not because of the dictatorship then.
You need a dictatorship to protect a small nation free from a much larger power with a history of all kinds of evil.
That evil seems to be way less for small nation than the one coming from a dictatorship. If I was North Korean I'll vote with both of my hands to not "be free" and ingested as one more state of the US.
In reality this however also leads to the US destroying countries and leaving them in the state of disrepair. And due to the US having the biggest military and economy dick it risks no punishment.
If you think they were under US rule in the same way that Poland, say, was under USSR rule, then... well, if you mean pre-1957 or so, then yes, Japan and West Germany were flat-out occupied. After that, no, they were not "under US rule" in any meaningful sense.
So far, Ukraine is showing this statement is false.
China switching sides is one of the many factors. An important one, but not as important as US/NATO matching and outspending (adjusted per-capita) the USSR in military buildup and proxy wars.
> Not a single bullet or tank or missile contributed to you being "free". But bullets, tanks, missiles, etc kept you under soviet rule.
Sorry, what? You're responding to someone who was born behind the Iron Curtain, and you're saying that Western "bullets, tanks, missiles, etc" kept him/her under soviet rule? As in, if the west had been militarily weak, the CPSU would have stopped occupying?
> Because north korea is constantly under threat of an attack from the greatest bully in the world ( who constantly increased military spending ), they have to set aside a significant portion of their budget to defense which leads an unhappy population which leads to suppression of the population.
Not because of the dictatorship then.