I'd imagine we created the Russian scare to dev our military, no?
yes.
Historically, we used the rises of fascism, communism, then terrorism in order to get the permission of the people to allow the borrowing of trillions - in their name - to fund vast military expansion.
The people who work at the pentagon - and those who work at defense companies - change jobs depending upon what party is in office. In other words, when we have a dem president, guys like Cheney and Rummy work for defense firms. When we have a repub president, they take jobs in govt, and the dem guys work in pvt sector.
it's how it's worked for 60+ years. Eisenhower warned us of it before he left office, JFK vowed to disband it (then of course was killed a week later) and every prez since then has just played ball.
Money, power, global expansion... paint it however you'd like.