Cold War Lessons
By Alan
Caruba
Some very
interesting realignments are taking place in the world, often between nations
one would think have little in common. The threat of fanatical Islam in the
form of the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda related groups has produced
unexpected outcomes.
Russia,
China and Iran are supporting Syria which is under attack from Islamist forces
while the Saudis are eager to see the regime overthrown, apparently for the
same reason. The United States is likely to use its military assets to
demonstrate it is no paper tiger, having largely been in retreat in the Middle
East since Obama took office.
At age 75
I lived much of my life during the Cold War from 1946 until 1989, some 43 years
which culminated two years later in 1991 with the collapse of the former Soviet
Union. Throughout that era it was, in the words of Ronald Reagan, the “evil
empire.” Presidents from Harry Truman to George H.W. Bush had to base their
decisions on what the Soviets and their satellite states were doing. At times
it turned hot as in Korea and Vietnam.
It was the
U.S. development of the atomic bomb and later the hydrogen bomb that dictated
what occurred because neither nation wanted to engage in a nuclear war. Having
stolen our nuclear secrets, the Soviets were able to develop their own and,
later, Red China had the bomb as well. Other nations, too, would acquire their
own. What emerged was the fear of “mutually assured destruction.”
This fear
worked, but now the world is facing the prospect of an Islamic nation, Iran,
having nuclear weapons (as does Pakistan) and, at that point, all bets are off.
Islam embraces death as martyrdom and the gateway to paradise. In Iran, its
leaders believe that massive human death and destruction is necessary to secure
the return of the Twelfth Imam, a mythical figure, but one that is real to
them.
In an
excellent history, “The Cold War”, by John Lewis Gaddis, published originally
in 2005, the reader is taken on a journey back to that era, but a goodly
portion of the present U.S. population has little or no recall of it. Anyone
age 24 or younger has no experience with the Cold War and likely no knowledge
of it. The Korean War was fought in the 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1970s.
The single
lesson of the Cold War was that Communism could only exist if the governments
that embraced it were led by despots and the full power of the state was used
to maintain it. In the case of Russia and China, literally hundreds of millions
died as a result. The closest example of Communism is Cuba, just ninety miles
off the shore of Florida.
Other
nations such as Venezuela and Nicaragua are essentially Communist, but the good
news is that, during the course of the Cold War and in the wake of the demise
of the Soviet Union, many new democracies have emerged. What occurred was the
“globalization of democratization.” Gaddis notes that “By one count, the number
of democracies quintupled during the last half of the 20th century,
something that would never have been expected at the end of the first half.”
What
Americans are witnessing, however, is the effort of the Obama administration to
“transform” America into a close approximation of a Communist nation as more
and more of its structure has come under the control of the federal government.
It has been a long process that began at the beginning of the last century,
ushered in with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 and manifested here
with a vastly expanded federal government and the creation of various
“entitlement” programs that comprise some 60% of our annual budget.
Americans
have become accustomed to a government that has extensive control over many
sectors of its economy and other aspects of our lives. The educational system
has been transformed into a form of politically correct indoctrination and one
that consistently fails to teach the most fundamental skills, least of all the
ability to think independently. The emphasis has gone from self-reliance to
self-esteem.
These
days, one in five households in America is on food stamps. Despite four years
of failure to reverse the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, the nation
remains mired in the longest non-recovery in its history since the Great
Depression.
At the end
of World War Two in 1945, in response to the Soviet Union’s takeover of Eastern
Europe and the need to put Western Europe on a firm economic footing, the
United States had to remain on a virtual wartime footing. Our troops would
remain in Europe where the Marshall Plan was implemented to aid the recovery of
our allies as well as West Germany. This was followed by the creation of NATO
to provide military support against a possible Soviet invasion.
The U.S.
had to lead the effort to force the North Koreans back across the 38th
parallel. Later it would attempt to do the same thing to maintain South
Vietnam. The former was a stalemate that exists to this day and the latter was
a defeat.
During
this period, the Soviet Union remained the focus of U.S. attention. The CIA was
created by Truman to monitor and respond to Soviet efforts to extend its
influence such as the Communist takeover of Cuba in 1959. The expansionist
efforts led to a fearful confrontation in 1962 when the U.S. demanded the
removal of nuclear missiles that the Russians had placed in Cuba. The Russians
backed down.
All during
this time, from Stalin to Khrushchev, the real story of the Soviet Union was
the continuing failure of Communism. Gaddis noted that “By 1971, the Soviet
Union’s economy and those of its East European satellites were stagnating. By
1981, living standards inside the U.S.S.R. had deteriorated to such an extent
that life expectancy was declining—an
unprecedented phenomenon in an advance industrialized society. By the end of
1991, the Soviet Union itself, a model for Communism everywhere else, had
ceased to exist.”
After the
death of Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union would be led by a succession of aging
dictators until events required that a far younger leader, Mikhial Gorbachev,
was installed in 1985, but it was too late and he came on the scene when
powerful leaders, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John-Paul were
positioned to resist.
Today, we
have a President who told his Russian counterpart that he would have more
“flexibility” after his reelection and, having imposed the takeover of the
nation’s healthcare system, the expansion of federal power over the economy,
and the vast expansion of its surveillance system, every American is learning
what it was like to live under Communist domination.
Historically,
the Cold War is over, but if the chill relationship between Putin’s Russia and
Obama’s America is any indication, it still endures.
It doesn’t
look to end anytime soon and the destruction of the U.S. dollar and our
economy, a communist goal for decades, is well underway.
© Alan
Caruba, 2013
****************************
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens
of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2.7 million page
views. If
you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional
skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go!
You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.
************************
No comments:
Post a Comment