Never a war in the first place?
So lets break it down a little.
Overrun basically all of Eastern Europe and turn them into vassal puppet states garrisoned with unwelcome Soviet tank divisions?
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin (AKA "The Big Three") negotiations and postwar planning in February of 1945 at Yalta set the stage for this "overrun". As part of the negotiations, Stalin requested to maintain control of "Soviet-friendly states" surrounding its borders to act as a buffer in the interest of national security---
which was granted within the agreement. So, that overrun, as you termed it, was asked for, and given--not an act of Soviet aggression or hostilities. If you'll remember, it was the Soviet Union who pushed the Germans back OUT of those areas after Hitler pushed all the way to Stalingrad, already sacking and controling all of those areas in the process. The Soviet Union simplt took the areas back from Nazi Germany, and elected to hold them rather than let them fall again and repeat what the Nazis almost accomplished by pushing so far as they did. I'll note here that the lasting effects of Soviet occupation in these areas is an entirely different matter. Unless you've been there personally, don't start that argument---I
HAVE been there, and my wife is from there (Romania).
It had nothing to do with communist expansion and subversion of various African and Asian countries?
This was a result of Soviet "Expansionism" versus American "Containment" policy, and actually bagan in Greece. I'll also mention that it was in part due to fears that Soviet presence in the Eastern Medditeranean and Middle East was not good for American
OIL INTERESTS in Turkey and Iran.
Sound Familiar? Same goes for Afghanistan--too close to our oil interests.
So the Soviet Union wasn't involved in any way with trying to take over the entire Korean penninsula in the early 1950s? It wasn't involved with communist takeover of Vietnam?
Korea was a result of both US and Soviet occupation post-war Pacific WW2. We and the aggreed to occupy the territory jointly--the North recieving support from the Soviet Union, South Korea recieving support from the US, and the division line being the 38th parallel. The Korean war was the result of
Civil War breaking out at that parallel, and the US protecting its interests under Truman. It escalated from there. The Soviet occupation in North Korea was a mutual agreement, not invasion or expansion.
Vietnam was also NOT the result of Soviet invasion, but of gained power of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh--the Communist Nationalist group who let Vietnamese resistance of Japanese forces during WW2. Prior to, Vietnam was part of a
French colony since the late 19th century. Ho declaired independance from France, asked for US support, and we supported the French instead. The Soviet Union chose to support the Vietnamese Independance Movement. It flared Cold War sentiment because of Communist support on the side the US chose to overlook. Again, the Soviet Union did NOT invade. We did.
Where are you getting your history from????? The
Cold War was a decades-long political chess match-----NOT a War.