What About Foreign Policy?

Regular readers probably wonder at times why I don’t write much about foreign policy. I guess it’s because, since the demise of the Soviet Union, the world is much more complex, or at least it seems to be. From the end of World War Two until circa 1990, there were two main players, superpowers, in world affairs, the Soviet Union and the United States. There were other players, but they essentially supported, or leaned toward, one of the two superpowers, although China began to wean itself from Soviet influence decades ago.* On the surface, like today’s Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, then commonly referred to as “Russia” by most folks, often “seemed” to stake out positions based upon the other superpower’s position on any given issue. “If you like chocolate, then I like vanilla. If you like vanilla, then I like chocolate. If you like chocolate and vanilla, then I like strawberry.” In fact, just as with today’s Republicans and Democrats, there were deep philosophical divisions, but telling the “good guys” from the “bad guys” was not difficult. There were meetings between the superpowers over the decades, and there were even agreements between the two, which gradually reduced tensions; the key word being “gradually.”**

When I was a kid in grade school, there was a major confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. It had to do with Russian missiles being deployed in Cuba, which is only about ninety miles from the U.S. President Kennedy challenged this Soviet deployment by sending American ships to essentially surround Cuba, and eventually the Soviets backed down. For days the world held its breath as the tension mounted, and it seemed that missiles would be flying in every direction at any moment. In the end, sanity prevailed, as both superpowers saw the tremendous downside to pushing “the button” to launch a nuclear attack on the other.

The two great nuclear powers had big differences, but neither side was stupid. Instead of using a major war to settle matters (probably for all time, if you get my drift), they used the world map as a kind of chessboard. Europe was at the center of most of the tension, as the Soviets had puppet governments running the countries of Eastern Europe, and the U.S. and its Western European allies kept forces at the ready to face any Soviet-led incursion into central Europe, most notably through West Germany.*** Further, each side tried to get “one up” on the other in technology. The point is, neither the Soviets nor the Americans wanted to end civilization by starting a nuclear war.

For years the two sides spent all sorts of money to build bigger bombs and bigger missiles to deliver those bombs. Many Americans, and I’m sure many “Russians,” as I’ll call them, wished that the other side would “see reason” and give in or just go away. In the end, the Soviets saw their Eastern European empire collapse, and then their very own rule over “Russia” go down for the count. Americans and “The West” rejoiced at the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. We had won!!! Or had we?

With only ONE superpower left, the rise of fundamentalist Islam presented itself to the world, including Western Europe, the United States and Russia**** (and more recently to China!) Unlike the Soviets and the Americans of “old,” these people were driven, not by a true political or economic ideology, but by religious zealousness (I’d say nuttiness!) and by an intense hatred of things “western” or “modern,” (I’d say they seem to see the two as the same), although nutcases as they are, they have no problem using modern technology, like computers or cell phones, to carry out their assault on the modern world.

In recent times, we have a Muslim nation, Pakistan, that developed nuclear weapons. We have a bunch of Islamic religious fanatics who would LOVE to get their hands on these weapons. We have another Muslim nation, Iran, led by a religious nutcase, that appears to be working toward developing nuclear weapons. If you thought the Soviets were a threat to the world, wait until one of these religious nuts gets a hold of nuclear weapons. To me it is only a matter of time. Any bunch of nutcases who would send suicide bombers into schools, businesses, crowded streets and plazas, will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons ANYWHERE. With their poisonous religious fanaticism, this will NOT be like the dealings between nuclear giants, America and the Soviet Union. Most Americans and Russians had rational thought processes, and both sides realized the potential consequences of a nuclear exchange. These nuts will most likely welcome the consequences of using nuclear weapons. LOOK OUT WORLD!

* From the time of the Communist takeover in the latter part of the 1940s until President Nixon’s major trip to China in the early 1970s, China was referred to in the United States as “Red China.” The U.S. and its allies viewed the legitimate government of China to be on the island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan, which lies just off the China coast.

** Here again it was Nixon who began serious talks with the Soviets on a wide range of issues, not the least of which was regarding nuclear weapons.

*** For those unaware, after the defeat of Hitler’s Germany in 1945, Germany was divided into occupation zones, with the Soviets in the eastern part of Germany, and with the U.S., Britain, and France with their own zones in western Germany. As the Germans were gradually given increasing amounts of self-rule, the western areas were commonly referred to in the western press as “West Germany,” although the Germans called the country, “Bundes Republik Deutschland,” or “BDR” (Federal Republic of Germany). See the “Word History” below) In contrast, the press referred to the eastern provinces as “East Germany,” although the Communist government called the country “Die Deutsche Demokratische Republik,” or “DDR” (The German Democratic Republic). The “West” eventually became totally self-governing, although with major military forces from the above listed countries being present, and in the “East,” the Communist government ruled that area on a day-to-day basis, but with the Soviets dominating foreign policy matters. That is not to say that the Western Powers didn’t have a big influence on West German foreign policy.

**** The Soviet Union was the inheritor of the “Old Russian Empire,” and as such assumed control over many Muslims, primarily in the far southeastern European part of their empire, and in the south Asian areas.

WORD HISTORY:
Bind-This word traces back to the Indo European root "bhendh," which had the notion of "tying up something." This passed into Old Germanic as a stem "bind," with a short "i" sound. This in turn gave Old English "bindan," with the same short "i." Later, a long "i" sound developed in the pronunciation, supposedly in southern England, and that eventually came to be our modern version. A noun form developed during the 1300s, and is also represented by the form "bine," used for part of the name of some plants, like "Woodbine." Hopefully I'll remember to do the other forms of this word in future histories. The verb is quite common in the other Germanic languages, as, for example, German and Dutch have "binden," Swedish has "binda," and Danish has "binde." The German word "Bund(es)," used in the article above, is related, and is really our word "bound." A "Bund," in German, is a noun meaning "bound together for political purpose," and is ususally translated into English as "confederation or federation." In the above, it is adjectival in use, and is translated as "federal."