From: CDELL@VAX1.UMKC.EDU ("VALENTINE M. SMITH")
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: "Dr. Strangelove or Is the Cold War Really Over?"
Date: 24 Jul 92 07:01:00 GMT
Reply-To: "talk.politics.soviet via ListServ" <TPS-L@indycms.iupui.edu>

"Dr. Strangelove, or is the Cold War Really Over?"

Tonight, I saw a film from 1964 that I had not seen for a long time,
"Dr. Strangelove or How I Grew to Love the Bomb." Also tonight, I
received via Val-L this odd post implying that the KGB and the CPSU
were engineering this vast disinformation plot about is happening in
the XSU. Oddly enough, I found the mentalities expressed in both the
film and the posts, dual, from UMASS, to be chillingly similar.

I am not of the school "The Cold War is over, we (the U.S.) won the
Cold War." I AM of the school that recognizes that the Cold War
SHOULD be over, probably is over, but I do not think anyone "won." We
expended the treasure of two generations on the arms race and the
largest nuclear arsenal on the planet - to what end? Deterring the
Russians? The Russians expended the treasure of two generations to do
the same. We both lost there.

Our two nations both have the highest levels paranoia about each
other deeply ingrained in our "masses," no matter that "glasnost" has
opened the doors to whole new levels of exchange. There are STILL
lots of folks in this country, as evidenced by my posters, of folks
who believe the Russians "are up to something." I suspect that all
the "yearnings" I and others have read about that the Russian
population desires a restoring of authoritarian rule revolves around
a similar view that the mindsets of a lifetime have been overturned.
Neither country wins much in that kind of atmosphere.

The old days of 1964 total paranoia are greatly gone. What I fear
most now is ignorance and stupidity. Much is being said about
tourists being assaulted in the cities of Russia, while it is not yet
clear to most of the West that things are still pretty perilous for
the Russians. It would appear that all the other smaller bits of the
XSU that have broken off are no better. The economies of the central
Asian parts of the XSU are shot, as is the ecology. The Aral Sea, for
example, once the third largest lake in the world, is now a quarter
of its former size, lakelets actually, and on the verge of death.
Cleaning up the chemical and nuclear pollution in the Baltics will
cost billions, as will be the case, I suspect, at Rocky Flats,
Hanford and that town in Ohio so badly polluted.

The cost of all this "you are the enemy" crap is enormous, in wasted
resources, messes to be cleaned up, economies to revive, mindsets to
abandon and change, nuclear weapons to somehow get rid of in large
measure (I doubt they will all go away no matter what). Yet, the
blinders still are on the eyes and minds of many on both sides of the
planet, sad as that is to report.

Russia needs massive infrastructure building, we need ours vastly
repaired. Their communications nets need vast improvement, ours need
less advertising and more extension of fiber optics to the average
consumer. All of the Warsaw Pact has toxic waste messes of all kinds
that need cleaning up, so do we. The health system in the XSU is on
the verge of collapse, almost 40,000,000 here have no health
protection. Hundreds are homeless in the XSU, thousands are here.
Hundreds of thousands here have AIDS, we still don't know the scope
of the problem in Romania, Albania, Yugoslavia and the XSU (the
places said to be most likely the worst). Both they and we have a
drug problem. Both they and we have an alcoholism problem (though it
would appear the XSU has the worst of that situation). We both face
crises in our education systems - they from too many years of
political teaching instead of genuine education, and we from allowing
education to take lesser priority than weapons or prisons.

In "Dr. Strangelove ...," the super-powers "go nuclear" and destroy
the world. The people of Earth cannot afford such ridiculousness. the
fact that i can sit here at this terminal in my bedroom, and reach
many points of the planet says to me that this is indeed a new day.
No war needs to have been "won" to realize that, no foe "vanquished"
to recognize the hard, tough facts that we, the planet, face new
realities.

Can we afford the suspicion and mistrust and paranoia of my UMASS
subscribers, and thousands like them in the US (and the XSU as well)?
Can we afford the nationalist fear, almost dislike, of the West
demonstrated by some Russians in high places? Can we afford the
simplistic "we won" sloganeering of George Bush, Dick Cheney and
Colin Powell about the Cold War? Can we afford the civil wars of
Yugoslavia, Georgia and Moldova? (So far!) Should we turn back the
clock to the fear, suspicion and stupid paranoia of the "Dr.
Strangelove ...," period? Can all the nations of the planet afford
the many layers of costs of continuing the arms race?

When do we learn how small a place this damned planet is? Do we have
to go up in the nuclear smoke envisioned in 1964 to stop the
divisions? Can we not cooperate, and work out common solutions to our
many jointly shared tough problems? How long does the "enemy
syndrome" have to continue? Earth is a small place, comparatively
speaking, and we have befouled it greatly, in many different ways. We
may well be at a turning point for the species as a whole. Which way
should we turn? Towards growth, understanding and cooperation? Or to
furtherance of suspicion, paranoia and war? Call me an idealist, I
say I'm only being sensible. We get along, we might survive. We
continue the policies of nuclear armament and the befouling of the
planet, we'll perish for sure. What do you want for YOUR grand-kids
(assuming we survive long enough for you to have them!)? VMS