> What you are saying has no basis in fact

Which parts? That the Soviets feared a NATO first strike, or at least deemed it a real enough possibility to prepare for it, is true (see: "Seven Days to the River Rhine"). That they Cuban missile crisis was a consequence of the US placing missiles in Turkey is fact. That the Soviets were fearful of the West and paranoid about signs of their interference is fact. That Finland was left alone because of its neutrality is fact. And the list goes on.

PS: Le Carré wrote fiction but also had real insight into the intelligence world, having worked in it. And what his fiction states is absolutely true: the West, in its eagerness to combat communism, supported, aided and propped up all sorts of ruthless murderers and dictators as long as they declared themselves anticommunists.

> And what his fiction states is absolutely true: the West, in its eagerness to combat communism, supported, aided and propped up all sorts of ruthless murderers and dictators as long as they declared themselves anticommunists.

For example, western germany happily supported the RENAMO in the Mozambican Civil War - and the US at least contemplated support until the sheer scale of atrocities committed was too big to ignore. One million people died in this conflict. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambican_Civil_War

I'm not sure what you are trying to argue. The OP is giving some pretty good overview of the motivations of the USSR for how they acted. They never argued that they never invaded other countries. Why do you think they did what they did? Just to be evil? So what about the enty of democratic governments that were overthrown by the US and their allies (and that includes most western European countries) and the totalitarian regimes they supported. Was that also just to be evil?

I guess we are left with two superpowers doing evil just to be evil.

And at no point I said they didn't do any conquering and taking freedoms, just like other superpowers that got high on "great game". The paranoia that led to things such as nearly starting preemptive strike in response to Able Archer 83 is well documented though. Great powers don't go for conquering for fun (usually...). They wage wars and atrocities to fulfill the goals as they see them, whether it's ensuring creation of border zones by conquest or making vassals out of border countries, or ensuring they get cheap fruit or ensuring another country doesn't better on literacy tests - none of that excuses the atrocities done.

However understanding the reasoning can help figure out why, what, and how things happened, and it's useful for actually stopping to believe in propaganda and, most importantly, keep seeing the other side as people - even if horrible people (then you might figure out the levers to pull).

As for Carre - I picked it out, because he wrote it better (on basis of his own professional experience, even) than I had the idea for, about believing one's own propaganda.