In the run-up to the founding of NATO, those responsible in the USA knew: The Soviet Union posed no military threat. The weakened power could not sustain an attack on Western Europe even if it wanted to: The Soviet Union's economy is largely destroyed and technologically obsolete.
POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE by George Orwell (tags)
Orwell wrote about how language affects politics and human perception, think "smart bombs" "surgical strikes" "iraqi freedom" etc.