Then along comes this movie and say the next war is started with no nuclear weapons and Russia just is after the wheat belt of the USA. It made sense in away. Very right the USA would not want to use nukes here and they would not either so they can grow food. This movie hit many issues right on target.
The strange thing about the Russians always buying wheat was that in actuality, they produced more wheat than we did. The problem they faced was that their storage and transportation system was inadequate, and about a third of their wheat harvest would rot or be eaten by vermin before it even got to market. Their agricultural system left much to be desired, even though they had a lot of arable farmland.
A lot of what was going on at the time was fear over the possibility of the Soviets establishing a foothold in Nicaragua and spreading through Central America and into Mexico, which apparently inspired the premise outlined at the onset of
Red Dawn.
But the Cold War had changed in its tenor and scope by then. I will say one thing about Richard Nixon is that he did see an opportunity in recognizing Mainland China after their schism and rift with the Soviet Union got wider. By the 70s, the Russians were more worried about China, but with China on one side and NATO on the other, they were a bit boxed in.
The whole idea of "world revolution" never really panned out, and the Soviets really didn't even have much in the way of "allies." Eastern Europe was forced to become part of the Warsaw Pact. It's like a bully who comes along and says "Be my friend or I'll beat you up." The Soviet answer to "How to win friends and influence people" left much to be desired. Eastern Europe was grumbling, and even within the Soviet Union, other nationalities and republics were growing weary of Soviet rule.
Their economy was in a shambles; the government was barely functional. I remember a joke that Brezhnev actually died in 1979, but it wasn't until 1982 that anyone actually noticed. They were in pretty bad shape, and practically nobody in the world believed in their propaganda anymore. Gorbachev's programs of Glasnost and Perestroika may have been attempts at creating a "kinder, gentler" Soviet Union, but it may have been a case of too little, too late, which ended up tanking the whole regime entirely.
I think when
Red Dawn came out, a lot of people might have seen it and thought it was a bit over the top, at least in terms of the overall premise of the movie. But if one can suspend one's disbelief, it's not really a bad film.
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