The Cold War
Most Americans would say that the Cold War ended when the Berlin Wall came down. One of the early crises in the Cold War had been the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948 - 49, which resulted in the Berlin Airlift to resupply the people of West Berlin. The wall to keep East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin went up in August, 1961 and it remained for 28 years. It came down on November 9, 1989. Barely a month later Soviet Union formally dissolved. So America's adversary in the Cold War is no more. That means that the Cold War is over, right?
Well, Russians-who-were-Soviets see that their Cold War enemy remains standing. If the United States was the enemy of the Soviet Union, then the United States must be the enemy of Russia. Bear with me on this logic. Actually, you can forget about logic. Call this an unquestioned assumption from which you try to build logic. I'll show where this can lead you...
Michael Bohm wrote in the Moscow Times on October 11 about a program he had just viewed on a government-supported television station. He said, "In an interview that borders on delirium, political analyst Veronika Krasheninnikova explains how the U.S. has an interest in seeing fascists — a veiled hint at Udaltsov and his comrades-in-arms — come to power so it could have a pretext to invade Russia, extinguish the fascist threat to global peace, and presumably take over the country."
Do many Russians believe that the United States wants to invade Russia and take over the country? I doubt it. Do many Russians believe that nevertheless the United States wants harm to come to Russia? Yes. The president of the country keeps telling the people that "outsiders" are responsible for one trouble after another inside Russia.
I'm writing this on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a defining event during the Cold War. Both Russians and Americans are looking back on that era, seeing the misunderstandings behind it. And although we aren't faced with the consequences of a nuclear weapon exchange today, I'm troubled by the persistence of communication problems.
Camelot
We are commemorating more than the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Just one month ago was the 50th anniversary of a famous speech given by President John F. Kennedy at Rice University. Kennedy had announced to Congress just a few months earlier his decision to initiate a project to land a man on the moon. At Rice University he spoke eloquently of the reasons for this project. Anyone who wonders why the Kennedy administration was glorified as the Camelot era need only read this one speech for its sense of idealism and adventure. Kennedy was blessed with having Ted Sorensen as his speechwriter, a wordsmith whose phraseology is best read aloud.
"We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three," Kennedy said, "for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension."
"... the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding."
"... space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war."
President Kennedy didn't live to see how it all turned out. Looking back, we can imagine the alternative that worried him -- outer space as a new theater of war. Kennedy would be surprised, but I think he would be pleased, to know of U.S. - Russian cooperation on the space shuttle project.
Do many Russians believe that the United States wants to invade Russia and take over the country? I doubt it. Do many Russians believe that nevertheless the United States wants harm to come to Russia? Yes. The president of the country keeps telling the people that "outsiders" are responsible for one trouble after another inside Russia.
I'm writing this on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a defining event during the Cold War. Both Russians and Americans are looking back on that era, seeing the misunderstandings behind it. And although we aren't faced with the consequences of a nuclear weapon exchange today, I'm troubled by the persistence of communication problems.
Camelot
We are commemorating more than the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Just one month ago was the 50th anniversary of a famous speech given by President John F. Kennedy at Rice University. Kennedy had announced to Congress just a few months earlier his decision to initiate a project to land a man on the moon. At Rice University he spoke eloquently of the reasons for this project. Anyone who wonders why the Kennedy administration was glorified as the Camelot era need only read this one speech for its sense of idealism and adventure. Kennedy was blessed with having Ted Sorensen as his speechwriter, a wordsmith whose phraseology is best read aloud.
"We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three," Kennedy said, "for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation¹s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension."
"... the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding."
"... space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war."
President Kennedy didn't live to see how it all turned out. Looking back, we can imagine the alternative that worried him -- outer space as a new theater of war. Kennedy would be surprised, but I think he would be pleased, to know of U.S. - Russian cooperation on the space shuttle project.
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