Mr. McLaughlin,
I would like to point out that “history” is always written by the “winners.” So everyone who had any association with the USSR is by definition the epitome of evil. Except their particle and nuclear physics, space travel etc. rivaled that of the US. If one ever gets a chance to talk to someone who lived through the Soviet Union, one finds there was another side to the story. If one gets to talk to Germans who lived during the last century, there was also another side. I think it is a mistake to believe that only one side can own the truth.
In addition, there are people and there are governments. What governments do does not always reflect on what many, often times the majority, of the people believe.
The reason most Americans cannot believe the civil war in Syria has lasted more than a few weeks is because our only source of information about Syria is from the US government, and a few journalists that relay on the government for support and safety, and they only tell the part of the story that fits the goals of the US government. Ultimately will the Syrian Civil War be a story about a powerful man trying to protect his people from dozens of ruthless rebel political factions, armed with advanced US weapons, that think nothing of beheading innocent people? Or will it be about an insane inhuman dictator that hunkered down in his castle and barrel bombed and gassed his own people?