Obama's True History of the Cold War

Earlier today, President Obama delivered a speech to Moscow's New Economic School, in which he outlined his vision for the future U.S.-Russia relationship.

While there was much in the speech that was notable, I think this was a key passage:

Like President Medvedev and myself, you're not old enough to have witnessed the darkest hours of the Cold War, when hydrogen bombs were tested in the atmosphere, and children drilled in fallout shelters, and we reached the brink of nuclear catastrophe. But you are the last generation born when the world was divided. At that time, the American and Soviet armies were still massed in Europe, trained and ready to fight. The ideological trenches of the last century were roughly in place. Competition in everything from astrophysics to athletics was treated as a zero-sum game. If one person won, then the other person had to lose.

And then, within a few short years, the world as it was ceased to be. Now, make no mistake: This change did not come from any one nation. The Cold War reached a conclusion because of the actions of many nations over many years, and because the people of Russia and Eastern Europe stood up and decided that its end would be peaceful.

I think this is evidence not only of a generational shift in the perception of the Cold War, but also of a clear ideological shift in regard to the way that the Cold War ended, and the ways that momentous political change occurs.

As a university student in the early 1980's, Obama was steeped in Cold War politics, and specifically concerned with strategic questions regarding the possibility of weapons reductions. As a young writer he grappled with the "twisted logic" of the US-USSR nuclear standoff, and wrote about the growing international nuclear freeze movement in 1983 for a Columbia University magazine. Having been engaged with this movement as both writer and student, Obama is acutely aware of the role that it played, both in the U.S. and internationally, in raising awareness and shifting perceptions of the insane nuclear gamesmanship.

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Comments

[Rule Of Law]

Here's a true history of the Cold War for you:

There wasn't one.

[jerocat]

Didn't N.Korea just cancel the 55 (+or-) year old cease fire agreement of the Korean War, the war which never officially ended? In other words aren't we in a hot war declared by them against us? They did that after Bush left office, after their probability of success increased.

They just test fired missiles in our general direction on July 3, about the same as the NASDAQ, the NYSE and a variety of federal government websites (including the Secrete Service and the State Department) were disabled during a broad coordinated cyber-attack on the USA's primary economic and national government infrastructures.

Isn't tonight Party Night at the White House?

[DonRoberto]

The "Cold War", as it refers to the period of time between 1948 and 1991, is over. Distrust and the unilateral pursuit of national interests continues on both sides.

While saying the Cold War is over may be acceptable, it is wildly inaccurate to claim we "won" the Cold War. The jury is still out on that one. Any victory we claim may turn out to be a Pyrrhic in nature, as to this day the US continues to deal with the consequences to our educational system, national infrastructure, and integrity of our government, resulting from the massive diversion of resources from other priorities to strategic defense over the last seventy years.

[pyro]

That the Cold War ended was, of course, a strategic myth, perpetrated in an attempt to sedate the masses. As long as there are ANY nukes pointed at ANYONE, the cold war continues. How could it be otherwise.

The arms reduction stats are bogus as well. We put one new "super nastier multiple warhead" on line, one with five times the destructive power of the two that are retired, and call it "arms reduction". Tiz bull indeed.

They all need to go away. Wish I knew how, but obviously, I don't.

[oxi]

Wrong! As long as NATO is still around the cold war continues!

Who cares about nukes...

[pyro]

What do you mean "wrong", that's what I said, that the cold war continues. It's " end" is a myth.

Who cares about nukes?

Are you serious? How can you be serious?

[aramos]

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it....

Obama doesn't understand US history, he was in Indonesia.

[pyro]

Nonsense.

[LMPE]

A few years ago, The Nation ran an article talking about how, contrary to the triumphalist version that we like to believe, the Cold War's end was due to a reciprocal lessening of tensions between the superpowers.

I've thrice been to Russia, and can say that they're very willing to work with the US. Not to mention that they have the world's hottest women!

[FearlessFreep]

The Cold War is undead.

[oxi]

Cold war? Why is NATO still around?

Seems the west continues the legacy of the cold war while Russia has moved on! You media types need to open your eyes more. As long as NATO is around, the cold war continues!

Now its not Russian tanks moving in, its western men dressed in suits and briefcases promising the world to Eastern European nations and now Central Asia to submit their sovereignty to the masters of the west and the bankers especially!

Serbia defied their calls and were bombed into submission ILLEGALLY, Moldova is next on the shopping list and maybe Belarus. Ukraine and Georgia's color revolutions are still in the works!

[BassMonk]

I noticed the History Channel is still repeating the same Reagan-end­ed-the-Col­d-War propaganda. I just saw it over the weekend in a series called "The Presidents."

[GregJL]

To hear conservaives tell it, Reagan tore down the wall with his bare hands. That's what wrong with them, they really think they can do everything all by themselves. They cannot understand how important cooperation really is.

[oxi]

Sure the wall came down but what did the U.S. doing shortly thereafter?

They started to expand NATO to Russia's borders.

Russia has every right to park nukes in Europe to counter the bully and lieing tacticts of NATO!

NATO needs to be destroyed!

[quillsinister]

NATO is a mutual defense alliance. Used as such, it's fine, althought it doesn't have much of a point anymore. You're right that expanding the alliance to Russia's doorstep, especially with regard to the recent debacle in Georgia, is a provocative act, but I would say that represents a misuse of what is, after all, an alliance intended only for defense.

I assume you're Greek from your handle. I know there is a lot of anti-NATO sentiment here (I live in Greece, too) but I think those people fundamentally misunderstand what NATO is, much like President Bush did when he almost used it to start a war with Russia. NATO was a good thing twenty years ago. Now it's mostly vestigal, but still is no better or worse than the intentions of the leaders of its member states.

:-)

[BarryS]

oh no! Raygun ended it all by himself