A quotation from the cover to "The Lithuanian Conspiracy and the Soviet Collapse - Investigation into a Political Demolition" by Galina Saposhnikova
"Through interviews with leading participants{as many as 39} on both sides, < > Galina Sapozhnikova captures the political and human dimensions of betrayal and disillusionment that lead to the collapse of the 20th century's greatest experiment in social engineering …
Termed "color" revolutions by the worldwide media, these various movements developed in several societies in the former Soviet Union and the Baltic states during the early 2000s. In reality, they were US intelligence operations which covertly instigated, supported and infiltrated protest movements with a view to triggering "regime change" under the banner of a pro-democracy uprising. The objective was to manipulate elections, initiate violence, foment social unrest and use the resulting protest movement to topple an existing government in order to install a compliant pro-US government.
This book not only exposes the process, but sheds light on how these events play out < > It is key to grasping the template that today underlies similar events in Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and likely elsewhere, going forward."
This book came out in 2018.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Experimental Blog # 235
Comments about the book "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs", the Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall
In the author's own words, "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs explains our current knowledge about the Universe, the Milky Way, the Solar System, as well as what makes for a habitable zone and life on Earth."
And, "Dark matter constitutes 85 percent of the matter in the Universe while ordinary matter - such as that contained in the stars, gas, and people - constitutes only 15 percent."
The astrophysicist Lisa Randall theorizes that as the Solar System journeys around the Milky Way galaxy, and as it oscillates up and down, it periodically passes "through a disk of dark matter that is embedded in the plane of the Milky Way." This "periodicity" occurs roughly every 35 million years. The gravity of the dark matter disk can dislodge comets from the "Oort Cloud" that surrounds the Solar System and send them crashing towards the Sun and into the Earth.
Beginning around 300 years ago people thought that Isaac Newton had "figured out the Universe", and some people even put his name on the "Newtonian Universe". Then, around the middle of the nineteenth century, along came James Clerk Maxwell; and he created, with some help from others, a different physics and universe for electromagnetic waves. Then just about 100 years ago came Albert Einstein. And he, too, with some help from others, put the two universes together. For many years, since then, people often talked about the "Einsteinian Universe".
Lisa Randall writes about the dozens of people in the last century, or so, but especially in the last 30 to 50 years, who have contributed to the science of astrophysics, and many other sciences, too. There are so many contributors and there is so much "astounding" research that it seems quite incorrect to put anybody's name on the Universe today.
In the author's own words, "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs explains our current knowledge about the Universe, the Milky Way, the Solar System, as well as what makes for a habitable zone and life on Earth."
And, "Dark matter constitutes 85 percent of the matter in the Universe while ordinary matter - such as that contained in the stars, gas, and people - constitutes only 15 percent."
The astrophysicist Lisa Randall theorizes that as the Solar System journeys around the Milky Way galaxy, and as it oscillates up and down, it periodically passes "through a disk of dark matter that is embedded in the plane of the Milky Way." This "periodicity" occurs roughly every 35 million years. The gravity of the dark matter disk can dislodge comets from the "Oort Cloud" that surrounds the Solar System and send them crashing towards the Sun and into the Earth.
Beginning around 300 years ago people thought that Isaac Newton had "figured out the Universe", and some people even put his name on the "Newtonian Universe". Then, around the middle of the nineteenth century, along came James Clerk Maxwell; and he created, with some help from others, a different physics and universe for electromagnetic waves. Then just about 100 years ago came Albert Einstein. And he, too, with some help from others, put the two universes together. For many years, since then, people often talked about the "Einsteinian Universe".
Lisa Randall writes about the dozens of people in the last century, or so, but especially in the last 30 to 50 years, who have contributed to the science of astrophysics, and many other sciences, too. There are so many contributors and there is so much "astounding" research that it seems quite incorrect to put anybody's name on the Universe today.
Friday, November 1, 2019
Experimental Blog # 234
Comments about "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama is the eleventh First Lady of the United States to write a book about her life's experiences. The first one was Julia Dent Grant, but her book was not published until many years after it was written.
Michelle Obama can easily be described as intelligent, highly motivated, and an ultra-achiever; and her husband, Barack, can easily be described that way, too. Besides that, they both became lawyers.
The book, "Becoming", starts out with many very strong descriptions of her childhood and youth, and of her very extensive family relationships. She starts her working life with several jobs that all seem to involve helping disadvantaged people in one way or another; and, so, she meets her future husband, and President of the United States; who is doing similar work.
After they get married she also writes very much about their two daughters.
Michelle Obama's entire focus, at least beyond bringing up her daughters, seems to be on changing society, specifically, American society. To the end of her book she is so involved with these efforts, in a variety of ways, that, except for rather briefly describing a few trips to England and Africa, she writes almost nothing about the rest of the world. The rest of the world could be India, China, South America, Russia, or other parts of Europe or Asia, or the United Nations. Nor does she write very much, or anything, about meeting the leaders, or other people, from these countries, or places, in Washington, D.C..
Nonetheless, Michelle Obama's book has to be considered a very important book, and it will very probably remain so for a long time. Everybody, at least all Americans, should read it.
Everybody is human, of course; but, probably, many Americans thought that, whatever their politics might have been, Michelle and Barack and their family were among the best American families to ever live in the White House. If there is such a thing as "American luck", it seemed to show up during their time.
Michelle Obama is the eleventh First Lady of the United States to write a book about her life's experiences. The first one was Julia Dent Grant, but her book was not published until many years after it was written.
Michelle Obama can easily be described as intelligent, highly motivated, and an ultra-achiever; and her husband, Barack, can easily be described that way, too. Besides that, they both became lawyers.
The book, "Becoming", starts out with many very strong descriptions of her childhood and youth, and of her very extensive family relationships. She starts her working life with several jobs that all seem to involve helping disadvantaged people in one way or another; and, so, she meets her future husband, and President of the United States; who is doing similar work.
After they get married she also writes very much about their two daughters.
Michelle Obama's entire focus, at least beyond bringing up her daughters, seems to be on changing society, specifically, American society. To the end of her book she is so involved with these efforts, in a variety of ways, that, except for rather briefly describing a few trips to England and Africa, she writes almost nothing about the rest of the world. The rest of the world could be India, China, South America, Russia, or other parts of Europe or Asia, or the United Nations. Nor does she write very much, or anything, about meeting the leaders, or other people, from these countries, or places, in Washington, D.C..
Nonetheless, Michelle Obama's book has to be considered a very important book, and it will very probably remain so for a long time. Everybody, at least all Americans, should read it.
Everybody is human, of course; but, probably, many Americans thought that, whatever their politics might have been, Michelle and Barack and their family were among the best American families to ever live in the White House. If there is such a thing as "American luck", it seemed to show up during their time.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Experimental Blog # 233
More quotations from and comments about "The Undiscovered Paul Robeson - Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976" by Paul Robeson Jr.
"In June 1947, Truman veered to the left in his domestic policy < > The administration's Civil Rights Committee publication To Secure These Rights recommended an antilynching law, abolition of the pole tax, statutes protecting the right to vote, integration of the military, denial of federal funds to institutions that discriminate, and federal laws against discrimination and segregation in employment, interstate commerce, and public accommodations.
By preempting the NAACP's civil rights agenda, Truman ensured that most black leaders would remain loyal to him. < > Paul's uncompromising left-wing political stance and his open attacks on Truman isolated him from the black elite ...."
Paul Robeson consistently supported the efforts of W.E.B. DuBois; and, later on, he supported the work and efforts of Martin Luther King. He also got along well with Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. However, he generally scoffed at the work of the other civil rights leaders: Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, and Roy Wilkins. He is never quoted as saying anything about Ralph Abernathy.
"Richard Helms, the CIA's chief of operations, had given the green light to widespread overseas operations involving the use of the new hallucinatory drug LSD, lethal toxins, and electroconvulsive therapy{ECT} against foreign and American targets. One of Helm's teams was MKULTRA Subproject 111, headed by Professor Hans Jurgen Fysenck < > of London's Maudsley Hospital."
Unknown to him, Paul Robeson was certainly given LSD in Moscow by someone working for the CIA early in 1961. He very soon was put in a psychiatric hospital in Moscow and in a few weeks, or so, he recovered. Paul Robeson Jr. came to see his father; and he too, unknown to him, was given LSD. And, he too, was put in a psychiatric hospital, where he soon recovered.
Paul senior's wife, Eslanda, was told by the soviet doctors that under no circumstances should her husband be given electroshock treatments. Nevertheless, she took her husband to a psychiatric facility in London sometime around September of 1961. He was at this facility most of the time until September of 1963; and during this time the official record shows that he was given 54 electroshock treatments. The official record also shows that he received 17 antipsychotic and other drugs which were intended to affect his brain.
In around September of 1963 Eslanda Robeson took her husband to a psychiatric facility in communist East Berlin, East Germany. Paul Robeson recovered there and returned to America in December of 1963, and he never left America again.
"In June 1947, Truman veered to the left in his domestic policy < > The administration's Civil Rights Committee publication To Secure These Rights recommended an antilynching law, abolition of the pole tax, statutes protecting the right to vote, integration of the military, denial of federal funds to institutions that discriminate, and federal laws against discrimination and segregation in employment, interstate commerce, and public accommodations.
By preempting the NAACP's civil rights agenda, Truman ensured that most black leaders would remain loyal to him. < > Paul's uncompromising left-wing political stance and his open attacks on Truman isolated him from the black elite ...."
Paul Robeson consistently supported the efforts of W.E.B. DuBois; and, later on, he supported the work and efforts of Martin Luther King. He also got along well with Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. However, he generally scoffed at the work of the other civil rights leaders: Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, and Roy Wilkins. He is never quoted as saying anything about Ralph Abernathy.
"Richard Helms, the CIA's chief of operations, had given the green light to widespread overseas operations involving the use of the new hallucinatory drug LSD, lethal toxins, and electroconvulsive therapy{ECT} against foreign and American targets. One of Helm's teams was MKULTRA Subproject 111, headed by Professor Hans Jurgen Fysenck < > of London's Maudsley Hospital."
Unknown to him, Paul Robeson was certainly given LSD in Moscow by someone working for the CIA early in 1961. He very soon was put in a psychiatric hospital in Moscow and in a few weeks, or so, he recovered. Paul Robeson Jr. came to see his father; and he too, unknown to him, was given LSD. And, he too, was put in a psychiatric hospital, where he soon recovered.
Paul senior's wife, Eslanda, was told by the soviet doctors that under no circumstances should her husband be given electroshock treatments. Nevertheless, she took her husband to a psychiatric facility in London sometime around September of 1961. He was at this facility most of the time until September of 1963; and during this time the official record shows that he was given 54 electroshock treatments. The official record also shows that he received 17 antipsychotic and other drugs which were intended to affect his brain.
In around September of 1963 Eslanda Robeson took her husband to a psychiatric facility in communist East Berlin, East Germany. Paul Robeson recovered there and returned to America in December of 1963, and he never left America again.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Experimental Blog # 232
Quotations from and/or comments on "The Undiscovered Paul Robeson - An Artist's Journey, 1898-1939" by Paul Robeson, Jr.{2001} and "The Undiscovered Paul Robeson - Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976"{2010} also by Paul Robeson, Jr. and "Here I Stand" by Paul Robeson{1957}
Quotations from "An Artist's Journey":
Paul Robeson's father... In 1858, as a fifteen-year-old field slave on the Roberson Plantation in Robersonville in eastern North Carolina, he had escaped with his older brother, Ezekiel, on the Underground Railroad to Pennsylvania."
The Reverend William Drew Robeson, the escaped slave, gave all of his five children a very religious up-bringing. However, in 1929 Paul, the youngest child, wrote in his diary, "God doesn't watch over everyone, because everyone isn't important". He did not seem to remember, "As you do to the least of these, so you do to me."
"Paul read extensively < > He read the works of Marx and Engels in German, and those of Lenin and Stalin in Russian."
"The Southern-born Woodrow Wilson had been elected president in 1912 and expanded segregation in federal office buildings. He also made it a policy of his administration to reject black applicants for federal jobs, and in 1914 he had refused to condemn lynching."
Quotations from "Quest for Freedom":
Paul Jr. quotes his father as saying to him, "I'm a human being first, a Negro second, and a Marxist third. But all three of those levels are inseparably connected."
"Stalin's "Great Purge" of 1937 had reached a peak by that time. < > In 1989, Soviet historian Roy Medvedev estimated that the number of official executions in 1937 reached 353,680."
A fairly recent video from Russia stated that from 1934 through 1938 about 700, 000 people were shot in the Soviet Union for "political crimes". Another video entitled "Famine - 1933. Unlearned Lessons", which came out in 2008, stated that about 7,000,000 people died in the Soviet Union from starvation during what they call "dekulakization" and collectivization. Many women and children were included in this number.
Yet another video from Russia{since deleted} was about a peasant village in southern Russia that was refusing collectivization in 1921. The entire village had taken refuge in a nearby forest, so the Red Guards used poison gas and exterminated the entire village, women and children included.
During all of these awful events there were spectacular parades, ceremonies, and celebrations in Moscow, Leningrad, and probably other cities, as well. Many thousands of enthusiastic "builders of Socialism" took part in these events.
It is difficult to say from these 3 books precisely, but Paul Robeson visited the Soviet Union during the years 1934, 1935, 1936, and 1937; during which time he put eight-year-old Paul Jr. in an elite school in Moscow. Paul Jr. says that Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, who was about 20 months older than Paul Jr., was also in this school, but he never says that they met. Paul senior again went to the Soviet Union in 1949, and, again during the years 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961, and he was hospitalized there. Paul Robeson also went to a hospital in East Germany in 1963.
They never say that either one of them met Joseph Stalin in person. However, in 1958 Paul and Essie Robeson met with Nikita Khrushchev in the Crimea.
In 1952 Paul Robeson received a Stalin Prize, which has since been renamed a Lenin Prize. However, because his passport had been revoked he had to receive it in New York. To date there have been only about 6 Americans who have received this prize.
These quotes and comments have concentrated entirely on Paul Robeson's involvement with the Soviet Union. He was also very close with American and other communists and many other people around the world.
Needless to say, however, his accomplishments in music, on stage and in film, and in foreign languages and linguistics, and many other efforts were highly exceptional.
p
Quotations from "An Artist's Journey":
Paul Robeson's father... In 1858, as a fifteen-year-old field slave on the Roberson Plantation in Robersonville in eastern North Carolina, he had escaped with his older brother, Ezekiel, on the Underground Railroad to Pennsylvania."
The Reverend William Drew Robeson, the escaped slave, gave all of his five children a very religious up-bringing. However, in 1929 Paul, the youngest child, wrote in his diary, "God doesn't watch over everyone, because everyone isn't important". He did not seem to remember, "As you do to the least of these, so you do to me."
"Paul read extensively < > He read the works of Marx and Engels in German, and those of Lenin and Stalin in Russian."
"The Southern-born Woodrow Wilson had been elected president in 1912 and expanded segregation in federal office buildings. He also made it a policy of his administration to reject black applicants for federal jobs, and in 1914 he had refused to condemn lynching."
Quotations from "Quest for Freedom":
Paul Jr. quotes his father as saying to him, "I'm a human being first, a Negro second, and a Marxist third. But all three of those levels are inseparably connected."
"Stalin's "Great Purge" of 1937 had reached a peak by that time. < > In 1989, Soviet historian Roy Medvedev estimated that the number of official executions in 1937 reached 353,680."
A fairly recent video from Russia stated that from 1934 through 1938 about 700, 000 people were shot in the Soviet Union for "political crimes". Another video entitled "Famine - 1933. Unlearned Lessons", which came out in 2008, stated that about 7,000,000 people died in the Soviet Union from starvation during what they call "dekulakization" and collectivization. Many women and children were included in this number.
Yet another video from Russia{since deleted} was about a peasant village in southern Russia that was refusing collectivization in 1921. The entire village had taken refuge in a nearby forest, so the Red Guards used poison gas and exterminated the entire village, women and children included.
During all of these awful events there were spectacular parades, ceremonies, and celebrations in Moscow, Leningrad, and probably other cities, as well. Many thousands of enthusiastic "builders of Socialism" took part in these events.
It is difficult to say from these 3 books precisely, but Paul Robeson visited the Soviet Union during the years 1934, 1935, 1936, and 1937; during which time he put eight-year-old Paul Jr. in an elite school in Moscow. Paul Jr. says that Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, who was about 20 months older than Paul Jr., was also in this school, but he never says that they met. Paul senior again went to the Soviet Union in 1949, and, again during the years 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961, and he was hospitalized there. Paul Robeson also went to a hospital in East Germany in 1963.
They never say that either one of them met Joseph Stalin in person. However, in 1958 Paul and Essie Robeson met with Nikita Khrushchev in the Crimea.
In 1952 Paul Robeson received a Stalin Prize, which has since been renamed a Lenin Prize. However, because his passport had been revoked he had to receive it in New York. To date there have been only about 6 Americans who have received this prize.
These quotes and comments have concentrated entirely on Paul Robeson's involvement with the Soviet Union. He was also very close with American and other communists and many other people around the world.
Needless to say, however, his accomplishments in music, on stage and in film, and in foreign languages and linguistics, and many other efforts were highly exceptional.
p
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Experimental Blog # 231
Comments on and quotations from "In Putin's Footsteps"' - Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones by Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler
It has been almost 28 years since both the end of the Soviet Union and Communism in Russia, which soon followed. However, only now are American and other outsiders really beginning to find out what life in the "new Russia", its many cities and provinces, has become. This book presents both some of the old and familiar negative and, sometimes surprising, new positive evaluations.
"After taking over from Yeltsin as acting president on the first day of the new Millennium"{the year 2000}, the authors then point out that eighteen years later Vladimir Putin is still very much in charge and is just beginning his fourth presidential term in office.
"At times you can't help feeling that Moscow is Byzantium, its modernized version, with Mercedes and gourmet supermarkets."
"Cities of the Mighty Volga" - Ulyanovsk did not revert to its pre-Soviet name, Simbirsk. Whereas Samara did not keep its Soviet name of Kuibyshev.
"Examining the museum's exhibits{in Ulyanovsk} < > we realized that only four leaders have remained in Russia's recent, and well-curated, official historical memory. First, Lenin, < > Stalin comes second < > Leonid Brezhnev is the third < > {Putin is the fourth, of course.}"
"And what of the "reformers" - Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Boris Yeltsin? They have almost completely dropped out of history, at least as the Russian state now presents it."
The more positively presented cities seem to be:
"The Urals' Holy Trinity":
"Perm is the Urals' culture capital - the "first city in Europe," < > Others view it as the last European city < > The Perm Paradox."
Yekaterinburg is called a "well-kept city" and it is compared to Chicago!
"Founded in 1586, Tyumen, the current hub of the Russian oil industry, has had an even shinier look than most." It is called the "Capital of Russia's Klondike".
Novosibirsk is told as "A Story of Science{ because of nearby Akademgorodok} and Serendipity". It is apparently Russia's third largest city and is positively described as "a stunning success."
And, not for the first time, Vladivostok is compared to San Francisco.
Magadan is called the "Gulag Capital". Even though this chapter is about 22 pages long it does not mention that an American politician named Henry Wallace, who became Secretary of Agriculture and then Vice President from 1940 to 1944, was reported to have visited this city, probably in the 1930s, and praised what he saw there![ Further checking-up turned up the fact that Vice President Henry Wallace visited Magadan in 1944]
It has been almost 28 years since both the end of the Soviet Union and Communism in Russia, which soon followed. However, only now are American and other outsiders really beginning to find out what life in the "new Russia", its many cities and provinces, has become. This book presents both some of the old and familiar negative and, sometimes surprising, new positive evaluations.
"After taking over from Yeltsin as acting president on the first day of the new Millennium"{the year 2000}, the authors then point out that eighteen years later Vladimir Putin is still very much in charge and is just beginning his fourth presidential term in office.
"At times you can't help feeling that Moscow is Byzantium, its modernized version, with Mercedes and gourmet supermarkets."
"Cities of the Mighty Volga" - Ulyanovsk did not revert to its pre-Soviet name, Simbirsk. Whereas Samara did not keep its Soviet name of Kuibyshev.
"Examining the museum's exhibits{in Ulyanovsk} < > we realized that only four leaders have remained in Russia's recent, and well-curated, official historical memory. First, Lenin, < > Stalin comes second < > Leonid Brezhnev is the third < > {Putin is the fourth, of course.}"
"And what of the "reformers" - Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Boris Yeltsin? They have almost completely dropped out of history, at least as the Russian state now presents it."
The more positively presented cities seem to be:
"The Urals' Holy Trinity":
"Perm is the Urals' culture capital - the "first city in Europe," < > Others view it as the last European city < > The Perm Paradox."
Yekaterinburg is called a "well-kept city" and it is compared to Chicago!
"Founded in 1586, Tyumen, the current hub of the Russian oil industry, has had an even shinier look than most." It is called the "Capital of Russia's Klondike".
Novosibirsk is told as "A Story of Science{ because of nearby Akademgorodok} and Serendipity". It is apparently Russia's third largest city and is positively described as "a stunning success."
And, not for the first time, Vladivostok is compared to San Francisco.
Magadan is called the "Gulag Capital". Even though this chapter is about 22 pages long it does not mention that an American politician named Henry Wallace, who became Secretary of Agriculture and then Vice President from 1940 to 1944, was reported to have visited this city, probably in the 1930s, and praised what he saw there![ Further checking-up turned up the fact that Vice President Henry Wallace visited Magadan in 1944]
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Experimental Blog # 230
Quotations from and comments on "The Cold War" - A World History by Odd Arne Westad
"The human cost of Stalin's state-building was immense. Lenin had set a bloody pattern by executing at least one hundred thousand people without any form of judicial process."
"At least ten million Soviet people were killed by Stalin's regime from the late 1920s up to his death in 1953. < > In addition, at least three million died in the Ukrainian famine, which the regime did much to provoke and nothing to prevent."
"How could the Soviet system, based on terror and subjugation, appeal to so many people around the world?"
"Eastern Europe was remade by Communism, western Europe was remade by capitalism. < > Part of the reason for the success of the new were the disasters of the old. After Europe's calamitous half century, any stability would do, even one that was imposed by outside powers through the Cold War."
"Communism was to be China's weapon for modernization < > It would make the country rich and strong."
"By the late 1970s much of Latin America was ruled by military dictators. < > In all, fifteen out of twenty-one major states in Latin America were led by military dictators by the end of the decade."
"The Cold War in Europe ended because years of closer association between East and West had reduced the fear that the two sides had for each other, and because of western Europe's proven record of successfully integrating peripheral countries into the European Community."
This is a very long book with about 629 pages of text and about 638 footnotes. The author was born, in 1960, and grew up in Norway. He later seems to have spent years in Britain at the London School of Economics; and only very recently has become a professor at Harvard University.
Of course, everybody can only have their own subjective point of view; and this author can not be an exception. Norway has a short border with Russia; and the author is very involved with the Western European and American points of view.
Although Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev seem to be, by far, the most written about people in this book, there are only 2 other Russians, Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khrushchev, as compared to 9 Americans, in total, in the top 20 people talked about in this book. The Americans are, in alphabetical order: James Carter, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman.
The remaining 7 of the top 20, in alphabetical order, are: Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawaharal Nehru, and Zhou Enlai.
It seems that the author, Odd Arne Westad, might say that these 20 people are the most important "world players" in the Cold War era.
"The human cost of Stalin's state-building was immense. Lenin had set a bloody pattern by executing at least one hundred thousand people without any form of judicial process."
"At least ten million Soviet people were killed by Stalin's regime from the late 1920s up to his death in 1953. < > In addition, at least three million died in the Ukrainian famine, which the regime did much to provoke and nothing to prevent."
"How could the Soviet system, based on terror and subjugation, appeal to so many people around the world?"
"Eastern Europe was remade by Communism, western Europe was remade by capitalism. < > Part of the reason for the success of the new were the disasters of the old. After Europe's calamitous half century, any stability would do, even one that was imposed by outside powers through the Cold War."
"Communism was to be China's weapon for modernization < > It would make the country rich and strong."
"By the late 1970s much of Latin America was ruled by military dictators. < > In all, fifteen out of twenty-one major states in Latin America were led by military dictators by the end of the decade."
"The Cold War in Europe ended because years of closer association between East and West had reduced the fear that the two sides had for each other, and because of western Europe's proven record of successfully integrating peripheral countries into the European Community."
This is a very long book with about 629 pages of text and about 638 footnotes. The author was born, in 1960, and grew up in Norway. He later seems to have spent years in Britain at the London School of Economics; and only very recently has become a professor at Harvard University.
Of course, everybody can only have their own subjective point of view; and this author can not be an exception. Norway has a short border with Russia; and the author is very involved with the Western European and American points of view.
Although Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev seem to be, by far, the most written about people in this book, there are only 2 other Russians, Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khrushchev, as compared to 9 Americans, in total, in the top 20 people talked about in this book. The Americans are, in alphabetical order: James Carter, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman.
The remaining 7 of the top 20, in alphabetical order, are: Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawaharal Nehru, and Zhou Enlai.
It seems that the author, Odd Arne Westad, might say that these 20 people are the most important "world players" in the Cold War era.
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