Yamamoto, the famous Japanese Admiral in WWII, who spent some time in the US, is quoted as saying he feared invading the West Coast because "There would be a rifleman behind every blade of grass", a class of citizen far removed from the FIVE MILLION Stalin killed just prior to WWII because they were "politically inconvenient".
There doesn't appear to be any evidence that Yamamoto actually said this, although he did study in the United States and was familiar with the culture.