US officials framed the Soviet collapse as a succession by another enemy

Evidence

Quayle presciently warned in his speech at the US Naval Academy, “We have been surprised this past century by the rise of communism, the rise of Nazism and the rise of radical Islamic fundamentalism… . ​I am sure we’ll be surprised again in the future. Though we may be surprised, let us always be prepared.” — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 686

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: NATO officials reconceived the Soviet threat to justify continuing the alliance after its collapse — Robert B. McCalla, NATO’s persistence after the cold war, 86