Quote Originally Posted by DrRick
The race to maintain balance in nukes nearly bankrupted the USSR; hence the decline of infrastructure which continues today.
That is not quite correct. It was the conventional arms race that destroyed the USSR. The tanks, the aircraft, the spacecraft, the ships and submarines. Under the same MAD doctrine none of that was necessary -- well, except the strike submarines perhaps -- but the USSR went on. That and the "industrial" race, remember that the USSR had or wanted to produce everything.