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In this essay I will be an attempting to describe the picture that was being painted of the U.S. by Russia in the 1970’s when the Cold War was at its height and U.S.-Russian relations were at their lowest depth, occasionally emerging therefrom, but then reverting. My information about this comes from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia , published in those days and now available to the public in a library near me in Long Island. It’s in thirty-one volumes in English and fully endorsed by the Russian government of those days. How my neighborhood came to possess this treasure is unknown to me. No other library out here has it.
It doesn’t seem possible that we had a big Communist cell out here which demanded the great work for the library because the only identifiable organized association we have is the motorcycle crowd, who mostly have big American flags attached to their handlebars and would be more likely to run over a Communist if they saw one than to do anything else with him. This part of the island is also home to a large Polish community who more or less share the sentiments of the bikers. There’s a big Polish-American hall a block away from the library, whose patrons had to be in the dark when the GSE was smuggled in, or it would never have made it. It’s had no obvious effect on the local populace as far as its mission of preaching collectivism goes. I’ve never seen anyone consulting it. There’s only one eccentric who sits over it for hours cackling away, shaking his head in disbelief and making notes of the more astounding denunciations and proclamations. That is myself, hooked.
To the res. To get to the real meat of the Soviet case against America, it’s best to begin on Page 651 of Volume 24. On the top of the page we’re accused of outsmarting ourselves in China in the 1920’s when we stopped supporting Japan against China because we thought the Japs were doing too well and would wipe out our Chinese trade -- we could not afford to lose our supply of hog bristles for our shaving brushes -- so that we naturally then switched sides and began backing the Chinese in the fight. Pretty duplicitous, as you can see.
Having touched us up for interfering in the Far East, where we had no business, (Russia having got there ahead of us), the Encyclopedia next rakes us over the coals for exactly the opposite behavior in Europe in the 1930’s. We didn’t prevent the defeat of the Spanish Republicans, we didn’t stop Mussolini from invading Ethiopia, we recognized Hitler’s annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia and in general acted, well, exactly as Russia did. There was one exception, also an omission on our part. We didn’t sign a treaty of friendship with Hitler. Russia did that. It’s not mentioned.
The Encyclopedia continues with its account of the war years of 1939-1945. The U.S. appears to have been a pretty poor ally, by the account given here. We promised to open a second front in Europe in 1942 and then “delayed”. This was true. We came to our senses and stepped back from the cliff edge, realizing that we weren’t at all ready for this. We told the Russians and then invaded North Africa, a target we could handle.
The GSE does admit that we finally invaded Europe in 1944, inspired by Russian victories at Kursk and Stalingrad. They put a little backbone into us. Probably we should be grateful for the mention of D-Day. Other things like the $12 billion in Lend-Lease supplies we sent Russia, or the obliteration of German cities by our bombers get passed over.
We do get credit, if that’s the word, for our “monstrous” atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August ’45. Americans think this ended the Pacific war, but the reality according to the GSE is that Russia “compelled” Japan to surrender by invading Manchuria. Oddly enough, though, “Japan was occupied by the American Army.”
After the war we continued on our imperialist way with the Cold War, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine and other crimes against humanity. What could Russia do but defend itself against threats to peace and progress? But the “peace-loving” U.S.S.R. was ready for any sacrifice in the cause of international harmony and reconciliation. Why, in 1963, when U.S. policy toward Cuba led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, bringing about a threat of armed conflict between Russia and America, the crisis was resolved by the “energetic action” of the Soviet government. They energetically dismantled the missiles they had emplaced in Cuba and energetically sent home the ships bringing more of them.
And so it goes. President Kennedy gets assassinated in 1963, the “reactionary forces” increase their activity. I suppose this means that some outspoken characters kept reminding the world that a Communist fired the shots. The GSE leaves out this fact and jumps ahead to the more agreeable topic of America’s barbaric invasion of Vietnam in 1964. This is Fun City for the encyclopedia and it revels in descriptions of the atrocities of American troops and the victory of American Communists in overthrowing the law requiring them to register as “agents of a foreign power.” (The FBI couldn’t reveal its secret agent who brought them $2 million a year from Moscow).
The article ends on an ominous note. It has been updated beyond the official date of publication to take in 1980, when still another reactionary, Jimmy Carter, decided to postpone indefinitely the ratification of the SALT II disarmament treaty, using as a pretext “recent events in Afghanistan”, i.e., the Russian invasion. Imagine, when the two sides had just agreed to respect national sovereignty and not to interfere in the others’ internal affairs.
My thesis here has been that the exposure of America’s leadership to this kind of abuse on a daily basis in the digests of Russian publications which they were given, had to result in a total rejection of any and all claims by Russia to its peaceful intentions and its goodwill for this country. The Russian peace offensives got a lot of subscribers among the ignorant in this country, but they couldn’t make any impression on sophisticated people who saw the diet of lies they published every day, of which I’ve provided a sample here. Russia really needed perestroika and glasnost, which should have begun with the perestroika (restructuring) of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia for the purpose of introducing glasnost (truthfulness). Okay, Moscow? | |