By Edwin Cooney
Nearly 33 years have passed since the Berlin Wall came crashing down on Thursday, November 9th, 1989. Those who loved him best declared that President Ronald Wilson Reagan had won the Cold War on behalf of all free men and women everywhere. It was quite a heady time for a lot of people around the world!
It wasn't that all was secure as the wall bit the dust since a number of scores needed to be settled in Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and throughout all of Germany. There would be shooting in Vilnius, Lithuania, executions would occur in Bucharest, Romania and, in August 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev would nearly be overthrown in Moscow in a coup led by Vice President Gennady Yanayev and as many as seven others. By the late fall of 1991, the cold war was pretty much over with the formation of the Russian Federation and the termination of the Communist Party by both Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin in Moscow. By September, the Communist Party was abandoned by Gorbachev and, in early December, with the withdrawal of Ukraine, the Soviet Union was gone in favor of the new Russian Federation headed by Boris Yeltsin.
The next step was to assist the new nation in adopting a new government designed to establish justice and prosperity throughout eastern Europe and northern Asia. To that end we sent bankers, lawyers, judges, and even religious organizations to reform, purify, and re-indoctrinate the multiplicity of ethnics of the former sixteen Soviet Republics.
Capitalism would of course lead the way. The richer the people got, the happier and more contented they would be assumed most Americans. Many of us asserted: how could it possibly be otherwise?
Gradually, however, the world kept being the world! Boris Yeltsin served as president for 8 years and 5 months until Friday, December 31st, 1999. His administration was stormy and was not always compatible with foreign policy ventures by other nations. In 1994 and again in 1997, the Duma tried to impeach him led by former Communist party members. Twice in 1999, he reminded Bill Clinton (who was leading NATO against Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavian government) that Russia had a powerful nuclear force. More significantly, it was Boris Yeltsin who, in a desperate attempt to correct Russia's economic woes, transferred foreign money into the hands of the growing oligarchy which he ultimately passed on to Vladimir Putin, thus creating today's international crisis.
As bombs fall on Kyiv, most of us find ourselves rooting for President Volodymyr Zelensky. Writing in the New York Times a few days ago, Thomas Friedman observed that Vladimir Putin's current policy isn't based on fear that Ukraine might join NATO, but his real concern is that Ukraine might want to join the European Union — potentially more dangerous to Putin and his oligarchical support. After all, it's hard to argue with those who suggest that Vladimir Putin is striving to one day recreate the old Soviet Empire albeit with a capitalistic rather than a socialistic base.
Here at home there may well be a crisis in the GOP. Should he become a viable presidential candidate in 2024, Donald Trump may find his previous relationship to and predilection for Vladimir Putin exceedingly divisive! If President Biden can effectively solidify NATO thereby reining in Putin, whatever his mistakes in Afghanistan were, they will likely fade away.
Still the questions remain. Did the cold war really end in the late 1980s and early ’90's or did Russia simply need to take on a new economic strategy?
Did we really conquer godless communism or is Russia more acceptable now that it has adopted capitalism as its new god?
What lies at the root of a nation's being? Is its profitability more significant than its sense of morality? After all, we once had a capitalist economy that was, to a considerable extent, structured on human slavery! Still more, its advancement, or "manifest destiny" (at least, up until the late 19th century) was dependent upon native American genocide.
Of course, no society has existed and even flourished without its sins — not even Switzerland or the inoffensive and gentle Scandinavian folks. However, we Americans have traditionally set ourselves on a much higher course of human achievement. As scary as it is to lead an alliance even possibly risking life and limb, we can hardly avoid that risk while remaining who most of us really and truly desire to be!
Even if it's the old “cold war” merely evolving into a new phase, it's still humankind's oldest enemy: WAR!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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