Bravo! Just considering the proportions of importance in your example, Texas (or even all the southern states from Texas to Florida) would be a better fit.

It's amazing how few people in the West understand the simple truth you set forth. Why is this happening? Are most Americans and Europeans imbeciles? Obviously not. The reason for this phenomenon is the notorious double standards: the actual policy of the West professes severe discrimination against many countries and denies them the right not only to an independent foreign policy, but also to an independent domestic policy. For example, in Syria, a civil war has been going on for many years, which was initiated from outside and is supported from outside. At the same time, the armed forces of several Western countries operate on the territory of the country without the sanction of the government. Can you imagine that in the event of a civil war in the United States, several countries would begin to demand to remove the elected president and appoint their own, after which they would begin to bomb the country's territory and create military bases there?

The West was afraid of the Soviet Union much more than modern Russia. But he respected the Soviet Union because it was strong. Modern misunderstanding exists due to the fact that the West views Russia as a piece of a great country defeated in the Cold War, and Russia does not consider itself as such (in fact, the US victory in the Cold War is technical: the USSR did not lose, but left the game unilaterally ).