The last thirty years have seen a massive change in the balance of power in the world. With the Great Crash of '73 and the race riots and War Measures Act of that decade, the United States just bowed out and slipped away from the Cold War. With the formation of the European and Asian Defense Pacts, America's former allies made it clear that America wasn't needed anymore. With the perestroika and economic reforms of the late '80's, Gorbachev finally succeeded in transforming the USSR into a working body, one which the Americas had neither the strength or the will to oppose. With the new Moscow-Beijing friendship treaty being signed, and communism spreading through Africa and the Middle East, we must ask: could it have been otherwise? What would it have taken to see Washington ascendant in the fall of Marxism, rather than Marxism's slow rise against the dying behemoth that is free-market capitalism?
<DB> America Wins the Cold War
- Thread starter Adam Parsons
- Start date
Can't think of anything to say. Seem to have walked my brain outIf only FDR had followed through with his plan to make Truman his VP before his death! Then we would never had Soviet spies Harry Dexter White as Secretary of the Treasury and Laurence Duggan as Secretary of State.
Alas, Korea was lost to the Communists, as was Taiwan, Thailand, and all of Indochina before the American people had the good sense to eject that idealistic old fool and prosecute the perfidious Bolsheviks in high places! Unfortunately, since he sent all the German rocket scientists to Nuremberg or to the USSR rather than employ them in our space program, we did not develop ICBM tech until 1960, well behind that of the Sino-Soviet Bloc.
Alas, Korea was lost to the Communists, as was Taiwan, Thailand, and all of Indochina before the American people had the good sense to eject that idealistic old fool and prosecute the perfidious Bolsheviks in high places! Unfortunately, since he sent all the German rocket scientists to Nuremberg or to the USSR rather than employ them in our space program, we did not develop ICBM tech until 1960, well behind that of the Sino-Soviet Bloc.
Memories...
I remember the dark days (literally) of 1973-74 very well. I don't think anyone believed the Arab oil boycott would be as effective as it was even given the supply of North Sea Oil. I remember my mother telling me I couldn't go to school because there were no buses or no trains and no petrol for the cars and the power cuts...
Of course, the French and the Germans bailed us out then and I think we all knew as we watched the American transport planes flying out of Mildenhall and Brize Norton in mid-74 that the world was changing.
They called it "Finlandisation" back then - making us dependent on the Russians but really it was the Germans calling the shots and I think Brandt and Schmidt knew that. Britain couldn't see it and we elected Thatcher in '79 on a pro-American platform but Washington had its own problems. The last straw was the Falklands - the Argentinians invaded and the Americans did nothing to help. We sent a Task Force but it was just like Suez back in '56. The French and Russians made it clear we had to accept a negotiated settlement based on a Franco-Russian plan for joint sovereignty. Thatcher rejected that and we found ourselves facing UN sanctions, the lot.
Thatcher quit and went to the States. The Alliance won the election and after that we were part of Europe. Genscher, Jenkins and Mitterand - I remember the Geneva Summit after Andropov died and Gorbachev took over.
Suddenly, after years of turmoil, there was new hope. With Russia joining forces with Japan and Germany, the economic power of Eurasia was unstoppable. Sure, we lost some things and no-one ever liked that Rumanian jam but we got peace and TERMS - the Treaty on Euro-Russian Military Security. I remember the big ceremony in Berlin in '93 - thirty countries joining together in mutual defence.
And now...the children can see the new Euro-Russian carriers at Portsmouth and the Red Air Force at Brize Norton. We still have a Queen and a Government of sorts but all the big decisions are taken in Brussels or perhaps Moscow. Gorbachev came to Britain in '97 - he was such a star. Even Princess Diana was supposedly charmed by him.
And America...you don't hear much about America any more. The border with Canada is still sealed of course. They say there's still martial law in Chicago and Detroit. The Americans claim we're all Communists now. I think we're all a little frightened - they still have lots of bombs and missiles. They keep saying the next summit between Gorbachev and Buchanan will achieve something - they almost had a deal in Dublin, you know....
I remember the dark days (literally) of 1973-74 very well. I don't think anyone believed the Arab oil boycott would be as effective as it was even given the supply of North Sea Oil. I remember my mother telling me I couldn't go to school because there were no buses or no trains and no petrol for the cars and the power cuts...
Of course, the French and the Germans bailed us out then and I think we all knew as we watched the American transport planes flying out of Mildenhall and Brize Norton in mid-74 that the world was changing.
They called it "Finlandisation" back then - making us dependent on the Russians but really it was the Germans calling the shots and I think Brandt and Schmidt knew that. Britain couldn't see it and we elected Thatcher in '79 on a pro-American platform but Washington had its own problems. The last straw was the Falklands - the Argentinians invaded and the Americans did nothing to help. We sent a Task Force but it was just like Suez back in '56. The French and Russians made it clear we had to accept a negotiated settlement based on a Franco-Russian plan for joint sovereignty. Thatcher rejected that and we found ourselves facing UN sanctions, the lot.
Thatcher quit and went to the States. The Alliance won the election and after that we were part of Europe. Genscher, Jenkins and Mitterand - I remember the Geneva Summit after Andropov died and Gorbachev took over.
Suddenly, after years of turmoil, there was new hope. With Russia joining forces with Japan and Germany, the economic power of Eurasia was unstoppable. Sure, we lost some things and no-one ever liked that Rumanian jam but we got peace and TERMS - the Treaty on Euro-Russian Military Security. I remember the big ceremony in Berlin in '93 - thirty countries joining together in mutual defence.
And now...the children can see the new Euro-Russian carriers at Portsmouth and the Red Air Force at Brize Norton. We still have a Queen and a Government of sorts but all the big decisions are taken in Brussels or perhaps Moscow. Gorbachev came to Britain in '97 - he was such a star. Even Princess Diana was supposedly charmed by him.
And America...you don't hear much about America any more. The border with Canada is still sealed of course. They say there's still martial law in Chicago and Detroit. The Americans claim we're all Communists now. I think we're all a little frightened - they still have lots of bombs and missiles. They keep saying the next summit between Gorbachev and Buchanan will achieve something - they almost had a deal in Dublin, you know....
A lot has been written on the racial problems of the United States in that period, and my personal opinion is that to solve them, a different leadership was needed, way back in the 1960's. The main problem was that Kennedy was not committed to civil rights, and spent both his terms burying the issue to placate the Democratic southern governors. By the time Johnson came to power, there was essentially nothing he could do but wait for the tinder box to explode. If someone else had been president, like Johnson or even Nixon, one who could get the required legislation through and was committed to civil rights, either through a personal conviction or as a political weapon, this might have defused the tension before it was too late.
Alasdair, wasn't Johnson the pres who was far more committed to civil rights than JFK was, a la his full-on desire to implement the Great Society ?
Melvin Loh said:
Exactly. Unfortunately, by the time he was in office, his hands were more or less tied by the Senate and the governors, so there wasn't really anything he could do. And after the Detroit and Atlanta Riots of '71 started, it was just the final step on a slippery slope towards total chaos.