Curious is there is still a fear, particularly of the domino theory that was prevelant in the 60s and 70s.

45 comments

  1. Fearful? No, not in the slightest. The idea of communism spreading is pretty much dead, partially because we engineered the prevention of it spreading.

  2. When Cuba had Soviet missiles pointed at us, the fear was there

    I don’t think anyone fears Cuba anymore, they couldn’t even retake Guantanamo bay if they wanted to

  3. We’ve moved on to being afraid of other stuff. No one cares about Cuba besides politicians every 4 years trying to win Florida. China is an issue primarily because it is competing with the US for world influence, and less so because it is a marxist-leninist state.

  4. In Puerto Rico we have a running gag that independence supporters want the island to be like Cuba.

  8. I don’t know why we have such a problem with Cuba.

    But there are a LOT of people who still fear China, though largely for the wrong reasons. The knee-jerk reaction towards anything remotely communist is making a strong comeback because a lot of people are gullible.

    The idea of a war with China is a concern, though neither USA nor China would ever want want to instigate it. Even though we are at odds, our economies are so intertwined it’d be like a conjoined twin deciding to murder their brother. The USA depends on China and China depends on the USA.

  9. > Or have the American people gotten over it?

    That comes across as a flippant way to put it, as if the only issue was that we had to “get over” something.

    Cuba is not a concern. For multiple reasons, China *is*, and we don’t need to “get over” them until they’re no longer a concern to us and a good bit of the rest of the world.

  10. Fearful of China? Not like in a for my life kind of way, but certainly the power they exert on the world is not to be ignored?

    Scared of Cuba? For what? I feel sorry for Cubans, I wish our relationship was better, but fearful I am absolutely not.

  11. No. The “fear” (at least for Republicans) is that if you vote for a certain party we’ll end up “communist.”

  12. I’m fearful of China because I think their leadership is stupid and overly aggressive nationalists that’ll do something stupid. Communism has nothing to do with it, because it doesn’t matter if your authoritarianism is boring, under a hammer and sickle, or under a swastika, it still sucks.

  13. No one fesrs Cuba or the idea of communism corrupting the west like back in the day.

    But there are concerns about China’s expansionist and authoritarian policies as well as its influence on America’s media and economy.

  14. Neither of them have any good reason to attack us unprovoked, so no. It’d be bad for both us and them if that happened. China’s issues regarding Hong Kong, Taiwan, and countries bordering the South China Sea are concerning, but I definitely wouldn’t call my reaction to that fear.

  15. Americans are still **deeply** affected by Red Scare propaganda, and it shows in the knee-jerk reactions a lot of people have to any criticism of capitalism. I doubt many Americans literally *fear* state capitalist regimes like the PRC as such, but you still often see people try to smugly explain why capitalism is good and communism is bad, without being able accurately define, much less meaningfully engage with, either term.

    Political education in general is pretty shit in the US.

  16. Republicans are fearful of the word communist, so much so that invoking the word can make them hate anything.

  17. I mean China hasn’t been Communist in decades, despite what the CCP calls itself. And Cuba exports rum, cigars, and doctors, so they seem pretty chill. Also all the hallmarks of communism/socialism (subsidized housing, universal free healthcare, (redacting) billionaires) sound pretty cool in a post-2008, semi-post-COVID world.

  18. I don’t even know if China can even be called a communist country. Its definitely got some hyper capitalistic characteristics, and is basically a dictatorship at this point.

  21. China is feared much more for the way it conducts is policies in the Asia-Pacific, towards the US, and in the rest of the world, as well as for economic reasons, than for being communist. Its human rights record is repugnant, but that also isn’t entirely due to communism.

    Cuba was seen as a proxy threat during the Cold War due to its alliance with the Soviet Union, especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Since the end of the Cold War, however, no one sees Cuba as a real threat except for Cuban-Americans who (rightfully) hate the Castros’ regime.

  22. Hehe. Americans can’t care less a about Cuba. Just another failed Caribbean country.

    American are concerned about China. They have been building up their military as fast as possible. They are building aircraft carriers and fighter jets. They also regularly threaten US ships in international waters. They threaten American allies such as Taiwan. They assist American enemies such as Russia and North Korea.

    All in all, we hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

    None of this has to do with communism.

  24. Fear of communism spreading? No, not at all.

    Cuba…a curiosity for most Americans.

    China….the ultimate frenemy.

  25. I don’t think Americans are fearful enough about China. American companies are happy to do whatever the Chinese government demands for access to Chinese markets.

  26. I don’t get the sense that people are as fearful of communism spreading like it did in the 50s-80s.

    Nobody I know views Cuba as a threat, and my assumption is that most people would be fine if the USA established normal diplomatic relations and trade.

    Many people I know (or have heard) think China is a geopolitical threat, especially if they continue to grow in military strength and influence in the world (including Africa). I doubt they would invade Taiwan because the cost (financially and geopolitically) would be too great and they really wouldn’t gain anything.

  27. The US has never feared Cuba, the red scare was all about the Soviets. That fear came from not just our own propaganda but the Soviets as well. When both sides are competing to show how far they can go to exterminate each other, you get some pretty hard opinions.

    We feared Soviet nukes, we feared soviet tanks blitzing through the Fulda gap, we feared soviet spies influencing powerful elements of our democratic institutions. The red scare existed because we were on the brink of war for nearly 50 years.

    Our current issues with China come from the influence they can exert on our economy, and their stated intentions to conquer Taiwan. Taiwan is not a commitment based on morality for the US. It’s one of the few links in a chain the US can use to control Chinese ambitions with our own economy. The US will do anything to ensure we have the option of blockading Chinese shipping to prevent China from overtaking US dominance in any way. This stance is essential for maintaining the comfortable status quo that the US, Australia, Japan, The Philippines, Vietnam, and South Korea have come to enjoy.

    Our concerns have moved beyond communism as that is not the common system of our rivals. For instance, Vietnam is seen as a valuable partner in southeast Asia. This is despite a long and brutal war to prevent their current government from taking power, and a long and brutal proxy war in which the US supported Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge in their fight against Vietnam. In fact, I would be willing to bet that China invading Vietnam and the resulting Vietnamese victory showed a lot of us that we didn’t need to fight communism specifically, as even the other communist nations didn’t want to live under a Soviet or Chinese hegemony.

  28. Cuba? No

    China is an aggressive near-peer competitor with the U.S. that is dead set on expanding their territory in the region as well as their worldwide military presence. Military conflict over Taiwan is a real possibility in the next 5-20 years or so and it wouldn’t be an easy war by any means. I wouldn’t say we fear them, but they are most certainly a threat communist or not.

  29. The whole red scare thing evaporated with the Soviet Union.

    American’s are fearful of China but China is communist only in name. They are, in reality, almost perfectly fascist, not communist.

  30. We have issues with China, which aren’t necessarily related to them being “communist”, which I think is arguable.
    I can’t speak for places like south Florida with a lot of Cuban immigrants… But generally no. Cuba is a Caribbean time capsule that makes good rum and cigars, it’s also where Guantanamo bay is, which means, militaristically we basically control Cuba. So, no.
    You’ll see more disdain than really fear concerning China. There are some people that just go OFF on China for weird reasons. It’s never smart people, it’s dumb racists. The reality is more like there’s a bit of tension because of their rising power and it’s pretty obvious the US is losing it’s singular superpower status to China. It’s hard to say if china is a “paper tiger” or not in terms of their actual military… China is kind of a weird mix of communism, fascism, and global capitalist. Also, not everyone is a member of the communist party in China, it’s reserved for those more high class people.
    North Korea is probably the most troubling communist country that is actually soviet era communist. There are kind of two fears regarding NK, one is their potential to actually harm us and our allies, primarily Japan, with actual ordinance… We don’t want them nuking Japan. There’s a misguided fear on the right about America turning into North Korea communist because most people want healthcare. It’s a stretch, but stupid people are shockingly good at mental gymnastics, probably because they have no fear of falling and breaking their neck.

  31. We are over it there’s other problems to worry about besides communism no one cares about that anymore

  32. I trust China as far as I can lob Winnie the Pooh. Just the government. Cuba is a place I’d like to visit.

  33. I couldn’t care less, I’m all for ending the embargoes on Cuba and I find it ridiculous that in rural Florida elementary school in the *2000s*, we had bombing drills for Cuba. I also don’t really understand the panic of China or another nation having more economic development than us, something politicians use a lot to get us to vote them. Germany doesn’t have the most powerful economy but its economy is still a powerhouse.

  34. There are plenty of people who still believe the old “communism is Satan” propaganda.

    I think everyone has a healthy fear of China just because of its massive size.

    Cuba is open to quite a bit of travel these days, but it’s paperwork heavy and it’s illegal to use any government owned anything… and they do go through your expenses. Which is strange. I don’t think the government of Cuba is a threat to anyone. Some would argue the people but the only thing making that island poor is embargos.

  35. Communism has always been a stain on humanity, and we must fear its expansion until it no longer exists outside of dusty historical tomes.

  36. No, fear isn’t the right word anymore. We look down on communist systems because we believe our capitalist system is better. It’s more of a “Cuba? Lol, it sure would suck to live there!” than a “Cuba? Oh dear, I hope they don’t do anything to us!”

    However, there is also a steadily growing minority of Americans who actually support communism. They focus on the negative aspects of capitalism, and they push for us to adopt more communistic policies. So the majority of Americans don’t fear other communist countries, but we do fear the idea of this minority being successful in changing our country.

  38. Communism, no. Domino theory, no. But anyone who doesn’t take the CCP’s authoritarian expansionism seriously is either not paying attention or is deluded. Those guys are playing a very long game, they want it all, and they’re playing for keeps. And without hesitation they will grind anyone who gets in their way.

  39. The question kind of sounds like it was some paranoid unfounded fear rather than a decades long geopolitical conflict. We didn’t “get over it”, we brought China into the fold and won the conflict against the USSR. The concerns are more with geopolitical instability and anything that threatens the system of collective security and global trade the US has built up as the status quo after the world wars.

  41. Nobody is afraid of Cuba at this point. China def is a concern but not purely because they’re communist. They’re just a rising geopolitical rival which has more influence than we’d like.

    When it comes to communism, I’m concerned with the kids being radicalized in college and on the internet gaining steam. It’s kind of a big part of the internet today to behave like a communist where if you so much as sneeze like a republican, you’re a fascist, imperialist dissident that needs to be silenced.

  42. China yes. Cuba no. However, China is stepping up support and funding in Cuba so maybe in 10 years Cuba will be a threat again.

  43. Communism was demonstrated to be a completely incompetent economic system in the 20th century, so even the last holdouts (Laos, Vietnam, Cuba) aside from North Korea are now privatizing. There’s no more concern that international socialism will topple stable countries, the political movement and munition networks evaporated.

  44. It’s hard to call it fear and more like a general wariness. But most Americans don’t even pay any attention to Cuba, it’s mostly China. It’s not even really communism itself, but more of the fact that China is our main competitor

  45. No, its not really a thing. Even that time period is generally seen as a sort of social panic. Not that Americans have a high view of communist or authoritarian states. But the red scare is over.

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