About 20 years ago the BBC put out a series on the rise and fall of the Communist States, which is looking rather prophetic. In the case of the USSR, we have the overthrow a king, then the overthrow a democracy, and then unrelenting horrors for 70 years and the the long history of self-justification.
The USSR conflicts with China, the geo-politics, Castro's Cuba, and then the regret by the players over so much suffering and death for no good results...
Of special interest to me is the role of Carter (our greatest president) and the neutron bomb... and the beginning of the end... Soviet exceptionalism and the invasion of Afghanistan...
And then the decision to pull the plug and not fight force with force but unilateral disamrament and dissolution of the military state, and the military pushing back.
One parallel that is missing is what the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in the Kiev did to Soviet confidence. The Fukushima disaster is the USA's Chernobyl, with Japan as tied into USA and the Ukraine was to the Soviet Union at the time fo the disaster.
The last 20 minutes of the series is the USAs next 20 years. If we are lucky.
The last lines on the USSR of this series are an exact critique of USA today...
Here is China today:
A multi-element perspective means working out measures that suit local conditions and striving for a sound regional environment in an active and well-advised way. In Northeast Asia, the priority is to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula - efforts should be made to restart the Six-Party Talks - and the establishment of a free trade area covering China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. In Southeast Asia, on the basis of taking into full consideration regional diversity, efforts will be made to hasten interconnectivity by establishing a new maritime "Silk Road" and the Trans-Asian Railway and properly handling disputes in the South China Sea. In Central Asia, the focus will be on strengthening the strategic partnership with Russia, establishing a Silk Road economic belt and enhancing the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. To the west, the focus will be on strengthening strategic coordination and pragmatic cooperation with India, and the construction of the BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) economic corridor and the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
Hotheads on either side can excite the elevate the hotheads on another side.
A solution: replicate a Hong Kong from Urumqi to Zharkent.
The quality of the video is terrible, but worth enduring for the content. Four parts...
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
The USSR conflicts with China, the geo-politics, Castro's Cuba, and then the regret by the players over so much suffering and death for no good results...
Of special interest to me is the role of Carter (our greatest president) and the neutron bomb... and the beginning of the end... Soviet exceptionalism and the invasion of Afghanistan...
And then the decision to pull the plug and not fight force with force but unilateral disamrament and dissolution of the military state, and the military pushing back.
One parallel that is missing is what the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in the Kiev did to Soviet confidence. The Fukushima disaster is the USA's Chernobyl, with Japan as tied into USA and the Ukraine was to the Soviet Union at the time fo the disaster.
The last 20 minutes of the series is the USAs next 20 years. If we are lucky.
The last lines on the USSR of this series are an exact critique of USA today...
Here is China today:
A multi-element perspective means working out measures that suit local conditions and striving for a sound regional environment in an active and well-advised way. In Northeast Asia, the priority is to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula - efforts should be made to restart the Six-Party Talks - and the establishment of a free trade area covering China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. In Southeast Asia, on the basis of taking into full consideration regional diversity, efforts will be made to hasten interconnectivity by establishing a new maritime "Silk Road" and the Trans-Asian Railway and properly handling disputes in the South China Sea. In Central Asia, the focus will be on strengthening the strategic partnership with Russia, establishing a Silk Road economic belt and enhancing the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. To the west, the focus will be on strengthening strategic coordination and pragmatic cooperation with India, and the construction of the BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) economic corridor and the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
Hotheads on either side can excite the elevate the hotheads on another side.
A solution: replicate a Hong Kong from Urumqi to Zharkent.
This is fascinating recent history, that informs us today.
A side note, for those who advance the argument the Soviet Union was created by western capitalist forces as a bogeyman to keep the West in line will find many instances of support here, if inadvertant.
The quality of the video is terrible, but worth enduring for the content. Four parts...
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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