Friday, June 13, 2014

President Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev...Tear Down This Wall" speech anniversary

Today, June 12th, is the anniversary of the "Mr. Gorbachev" wall speech.

I think I'll let President Reagan's own words speak for themselves.

I've provided the links here for you to access his words on YouTube.

There are two links, the first is a short one for the time constrained visitor. The second is the entire speech. (3:59, and 26:42 respectively).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MDFX-dNtsM&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Much appreciation to YourTube.com for the speeches and Google Images for the photo.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

We lose another Cold Warrior: Isaac Patch

As the years progress we are all getting just a little bit older.

The years have ended at 101 for Isaac Patch, Cold Warrior.

Why is the passing of this Cold Warrior of note?

He distributed books, yes books. It was, who he was distributing those book to, and for whom he was doing it.

Mr. Patch worked for the CIA and distributed books into the Soviet Union.

He died at 101 years old on May 31, 2014.

His legacy is that he helped educate the communist of what it was like to be free. Literature has a way of causing the reader to think. And we all know what a thinking human can do to a closed, controlled society. It culminated into the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

This excerpt from the Washington Post article defines psychological combat: "Political warfare - to win the hearts and minds of adversaries. . .". That was the goal. Smuggling books, rock and roll music, broadcasting talk radio, blue jeans; all of these "Western" things helped bring the Soviet Union down. Mr. Patch had a role in this.

I recently completed reading the novel Russia House and can't help but make the association between the background in that book and this real life person and his activity. How interesting. If you have not read the book; the main character is a publisher and he agrees to smuggle a manuscript out of the Soviet Union and publish it. Mi-5 then recruits him to spy for them. I enjoyed the novel.

Please link over and read the entire Washington Post article. It is quite interesting to learn of this man, who played such a major role in the Cold War, albeit, behind the scenes, and unknown to most, succeeded in his goal.

In my opinion, he died a successful man.

John Kairis
The Proud Cold Warrior

Click here to access the original article

NOTE: I KNOW WE GET VISITORS FROM RUSSIA AND THE FORMERLY EASTERN BLOCK COUNTRIES ACCORDING TO GOOGLE ANALYTICS.
IF ANY OF YOU RECEIVED BOOKS THROUGH THIS PROGRAM DURING THE COLD WAR, WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. WRITE US AND TELL US YOUR COLD WAR STORY!

Friday, June 6, 2014

Stalin Finally Got His Second Front 70 Years Ago Today

After years of unfulfilled promises from Churchill and Roosevelt, Stalin got his second front with the invasion of the European continent 70 years ago today.

The Russians had been holding their own on the Eastern Front against Nazi Germany. In fact they were gaining considerable ground in June 1944. The efforts by the Allies in North Africa, the Mediterranean and Italy siphoned off German troops from battling Russia but it was not the large scale continental Western front Stalin was promised.

Those empty promises since 1942 had to have influenced Stalin's attitude towards the Allies that would accumulate and fester into the tensions that surfaced in 1945 after WWII was over.

There are many other factors involved of course, but the second front delays were a factor in ...

the start of the Cold War.


Thursday, June 5, 2014

A Cold Warrior Passes While Trying to Re-write History


Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski died on May 25, 2014. The last communist leader of Poland spent his waning years trying to convince the world he was a reformer and not a communist. Sorry General, you can't re-write reality. Something called the truth always gets in the way.

As an American of Polish descent I watched the events in Poland in the 1980s and rejoiced in their escape from Communism. It is hard to believe it has been 25 years.

Please link over to this very good article by Andrew Nagorski who was actually there in the 1980s and recently met with the General.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/poland-s-warmed-over-cold-warrior.html

Article is linked to this blog, with the acknowledgement of Andrew Nagorski as the writer and The Daily Beast, as the publisher.

Thank you for visiting The Proud Cold Warrior blog.