Ever wake up in the morning not able to remember what day it is?
It happened to me this morning, only I couldn’t remember what YEAR it is. Is this September 1939 or is it October 1962?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine with images of long lines of tanks and other military weaponry brings memories of the black-and-white photos of German tanks carrying out the blitzkrieg that would end with the obliteration of Poland and the world’s most destructive war ever. The excuses of 1939 ("living room" for Germans and international acceptance of Germany's expansions) are similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revisions of history in a speech earlier this week, when he claimed Ukraine wasn’t really a sovereign nation, only a benevolent creation by the Kremlin and “Mother Russia.” Ukrainians don’t exist, Putin was claiming; they are all Russians or Russian cousins, who should be glad to be defended by Russia’s cultural, historical, economic and legal protections.
Sanctions levied by the United States, the UK and the European Union are imposing painful costs on Russia’s government, military and population. Russia appears to be behind cyber attacks on western countries and Ukraine’s government. Meanwhile, Russian tanks and weaponry remain in Ukraine, leaving me with the feeling I’ve awakened in the fall of 1939.
Or is it 1962, when all Americans feared for their lives and for the survival of their country. Russian ballistic missiles stationed in Cuba were capable of dropping nuclear bombs on the lower half of the United States. I was 13 years old at the time, and I can still feel the fear and anxiety I and my eighth grade classmates felt. “This is a day we will always remember,” one classmate told me over our lunch table. He was right.
In the case of 1962, President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet Union’s Premier Nikita Khruschev came to their senses and stepped away from a nuclear war that would destroy both countries and most of the rest of Planet Earth. In one sense, the 1962 crisis was more dangerous than the current one. Two nuclear-armed countries threatened to destroy the other in the 1960s term for hair’s breadth safety built on fear: MAD — Mutually Assured Destruction.
In 2022, we’re only concerned about one country, Ukraine, which Russia now asserts is not a country at all, as its tanks and other weapons shred Ukraine’s claim of sovereignty.
But it’s not just one country. All countries in Europe know the history of frequent wars on the continent for centuries. After World War II, Europeans, with assistance from the United States, put together strategies for avoiding future ground wars in Europe: NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with each member nation pledging to come to the aid of any member nation that is attacked from outside NATO; and the European Union, which aimed to make European nations’ economies dependent on other European countries.
Putin despises NATO and the E.U. and would love to see both organizations collapse. Invading Ukraine and demanding that Ukraine would never join NATO feeds Putin’s long-term strategy: A weak, divided Europe that can be easily emasculated by Putin or easily invaded and annexed — a ploy that cannot be allowed in a civilized world.
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