Did you hear the one about the Communist Ducks ?

So Anneli's reading this book on water resource management in the West of the U.S., and the factors which contributed to them having a severe crisis. One funny example she just shared with me was that apparently the Army Corp of Engineers and Internal Affairs (both pseudo-government) were competing for congressional money and would often start projects (especially dams) just so that the other wouldn't get the job first. Apparently one army engineer proposed building a dam in Alaska. The dam had no justification that would constitute as normal. It would harm the salmon population and provide no help to the people since no one lives there. But this engineer defended his theory, citing the building of a dam on the other side of the peninsula in the Soviet Union as reason enough! "Surely we cannot let the Reds get the upper hand on us. Our dam would be much larger than theirs. As for the effect on wildlife, it appears that the harm would mostly be done to ducks. However, these ducks have migrated from the Soviet Union and settled at the site. We might as well kill 'em Commie ducks!"