Both the United States and the USSR defined and prioritized their identities in terms of what those nations believed the other's ultimate goal was, regardless of whether that was a accurate vision. This vision of collective security suffered a serious blow and reformulation (which continues to this day) when, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union, a Soviet diplomat told his American counterpart: “We (the Soviet Union) are talking about to do a terrible thing to you, we will deprive you of an enemy (lipshutz).” The question of who we are was asked again; is the need for an essential enemy to define a nation as a