Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable Cold War relic...., October 18, 2009
I almost bought this as a kid back in the 80s, forgot, and came across it recently. Some have dismissed this as right wing, Cold War paranoia but Conquest is an expert on the former Soviet Union, particularly the Stalin era. His "Stalin-Breaker of Nations" is the book I recommend to friends as a short introduction to Stalin. While in hindsight it seems that an actual military conquest by the Soviet Union of the US was implausible, Conquest draws on what happened in Soviet occupied countries to paint a bleak, hypothetical picture. The most fascinating chapter involves how different professions would exist (or not) under Soviet occupation.
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7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "Worst Case Scenario"......., April 18, 2002
A scenario, which, thank God, never happened, "What to do when the Russians Come" is a "how-to" guide for surviving occupation until the inevitable fall of Communism. Thank God, again, that said fall occurred BEFORE we needed the valuable advice in this book!
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12 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unbelievable, Reagan-era propaganda, but fun!, December 1, 2005
This book was part of the huge multi-media effort in the mid-80s to scare the American public into paying for the Reagan defense buildup. (Others include Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War", the movie "Red Dawn", and the Milton Bradley game "Fortress America".) All have the same premise: the Soviets ARE COMING!!! All of them first terify you with visions of the massive Red War Machine marching down Main Street USA, then hold out the slender hope that IF (and only if) we spend the next 500 generations' worth of US tax income, we might just stop those Red Scum...maybe.
Given what we now know about the state of the Soviet military at the time, this was pure paranoid hype. The Soviets did have the capability to nuke Omaha, but not to occupy it with ground troops. However, this book and its comrades did succeed in terrifying Western audiences into plumping for that $5 trillion deficit to pay for scads of expensive weapons. As such, it is a terribly instructive historical learning tool. Yes, the book is complete garbage as a representation of any kind of true reality, but as a window into the ways that those in charge can manipulate people through fear, it is an excellent book. If you are a history teacher, I highly recommend using excerpts to instruct your students on cold war propaganda. Just don't be foolish enough to actually BELIEVE what Conquest and White are selling. One final note: it is quite honestly impossible to tell to what extent these commercial products were part of a coordinated administration/defense industry effort. Clearly, given what we know about the current government (and past governments) planting fake news, this is a possibility. On the other hand, so many millions of tax dollars were being spent scaring the American people in those days, that there was a ready-made market for this kind of fictional scare book. It may be that Conquest and White (as well as the others) were simply cashing in on a market already created in part by the US government. However, there is no doubt that whatever their intentions, they helped fuel the generally paranoid atmosphere of the times, and helped Ronnie run up that massive budget deficit that we are still paying for today. Enjoy!
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by William R. Forstchen
