[coldtea]

>Most of the bases were well welcomed during the cold war

Only if you never bothered to ask the center- and left-inclined population of each country (which was quite substantial) -- and ignored the protests against them.

And with the help of a few interventions (e.g. in Italy) and dictatorships (e.g. in Greece) imposed when needed to keep some pro-US goons in government.

[xyzal]

As a Czech citizen I only regret the bases were not built a few hundered kilometers more to the east. Forty years under Russian influence were devastating to my country.

[CamperBob2]

Of course, we are now beginning to understand just how good the Russians are at agitprop, misdirection, false-flag rabble-rousing, and general social subversion.

Just how much of the European "protest culture" of the 1970s and 1980s actually grew organically, without covert Soviet backing?

[saiya-jin]

Soviets did back leftist movements across western Europe, and CIA backed dissent in eastern Europe. And each were trying to eliminate other's pawns in the game. So what? This never starts in vacuum, no protest movement gains momentum in a happy population.

[v_lisivka]

Zero.

[CamperBob2]

OK, that's one vote for 'zero', from a place that didn't allow the people to vote at all during the time period in question. Anyone else?

[pvaldes]

Ad-hominem fallacy. The fact that some people didn't were allowed to choose politics in some time somewhere (like for example all women in Europe and USA until the last generations), does not imply that their opinion about a political theme is automatically tainted, wrong or insignificant.

[coldtea]

>Just how much of the European "protest culture" of the 1970s and 1980s actually grew organically, without covert Soviet backing?

A, yes, it was the Russians all along, which, retroactively also proves that they control the world now from some building in St. Petersburg. And when they get some friendly lackey in power like Yeltsin again and be buddies and everything, there will be another enemy du jour, arabs (just not the Saudis) are good for that.

It's not like there ever was a very strong European left movement (or an American one for that matter), or that people in different countries in Europe have devoted their lives, risked careers, gone to prison, even tortured or executed for being pro-communist (or perhaps they did all that because they were paid)...

[def_true_false]

> ... people in different countries in Europe have devoted their lives, risked careers, gone to prison, even tortured or executed for being pro-communist

Or, if they happened to be in Eastern Europe, for being anti-communist... funny how that works.

[coldtea]

Well, the grass is always greener. Funny also how many ex-eastern blocers say they preferred those times though...

[FeloniousHam]

Only ironic if you discount nostalgia from every generation. I too prefer the social media-and-screen-free life of Cold War America, with the closer and stricter family structure that existed then. But I would not trade the mobility, agency, choice, and convenience of the modern age for those rosy memories.

I say categorically: no non-ideological ex-Eastern Blocer wishes to return to the lower standard of living and simple lack of options imposed by Soviet rule, regardless of what hardship the iron fist of US hegemony imposes.