I was interested in contemporary world events. For Americans in that time, particularly young
Americans, the Vietnam War dominated the foreground of international affairs.
But the Soviet Union was America's greatest rival - a powerful and dangerous nation based on drastically different views of political power, economic organization and personal liberties.
We were taught as school children about the Soviet Union and "communism," mostly with a propagandistic slant. At age 17, I was questioning much of what I had been taught. I wanted to see for myself.
It may be hard to realize now how the Cold War shaped the world of my childhood. People my age remember “duck and cover” drills in elementary school, backyard bomb shelters, and fear of nuclear war. The assumption among the general public was, I think, that a war with the Soviet Union would quickly "go nuclear." If that happened it would be the end of everything. There were many other serious conflicts and potential conflicts in the world, but the confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, was the only one that threatened the annihilation of humankind.
The Cuban Missile Crisis had occurred just seven years earlier. I was only ten years old at that time, but I still have very clear memories of it. I often helped an older friend fold papers for his afternoon Denver Post newspaper route. He showed me the front page of the newspaper, with its banner headline about President Kennedy announcing the blockade of Cuba. My friend said something along the lines of, "See this? We're gonna have a war with Russia." When I repeated that pronouncement at the family dinner table that evening, my father quickly reassured us that events had not gone that far and he was sure it would not come to war. But I'll bet he and my mother were worried, and we now know how perilous the situation was.
Most of the time this Cold War stuff was background. The danger was real but seemed unreal, and it was not something that one dwelt on in daily life. By the time I was in high school, the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union was a subject for gallows humor among young people. There was a popular spoof of the earnest civil defense posters of the 1950's and early 1960's, that went something like this: "If warned of nuclear attack, follow these three steps: Step 1. Go to a basement or well-protected place. Step 2. Crouch down with your head between your legs. Step 3. Kiss your ass goodbye."
+Moscow+-+Supreme+Soviet.JPG) |
| Supreme Soviet building, in the Kremlin - Moscow, Russia, USSR |
We were taught as school children about the Soviet Union and "communism," mostly with a propagandistic slant. At age 17, I was questioning much of what I had been taught. I wanted to see for myself.
It may be hard to realize now how the Cold War shaped the world of my childhood. People my age remember “duck and cover” drills in elementary school, backyard bomb shelters, and fear of nuclear war. The assumption among the general public was, I think, that a war with the Soviet Union would quickly "go nuclear." If that happened it would be the end of everything. There were many other serious conflicts and potential conflicts in the world, but the confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, was the only one that threatened the annihilation of humankind.
The Cuban Missile Crisis had occurred just seven years earlier. I was only ten years old at that time, but I still have very clear memories of it. I often helped an older friend fold papers for his afternoon Denver Post newspaper route. He showed me the front page of the newspaper, with its banner headline about President Kennedy announcing the blockade of Cuba. My friend said something along the lines of, "See this? We're gonna have a war with Russia." When I repeated that pronouncement at the family dinner table that evening, my father quickly reassured us that events had not gone that far and he was sure it would not come to war. But I'll bet he and my mother were worried, and we now know how perilous the situation was.
Most of the time this Cold War stuff was background. The danger was real but seemed unreal, and it was not something that one dwelt on in daily life. By the time I was in high school, the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union was a subject for gallows humor among young people. There was a popular spoof of the earnest civil defense posters of the 1950's and early 1960's, that went something like this: "If warned of nuclear attack, follow these three steps: Step 1. Go to a basement or well-protected place. Step 2. Crouch down with your head between your legs. Step 3. Kiss your ass goodbye."
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