Our Man in Vienna

The Myth

Just as East Europe was freed from Nazism
but not freed,
Russia (or the Soviet Union, if you will)
was freed from Communism
but not freed.

There’s a myth circulating that President Reagan and Pope John Paul II
brought down Communism in the Soviet Union. That’s a half truth.
They helped prevent the liberalization of society
in a Union that had been a dictatorship.

When Mikhail Gorbachev took the reins of the Communist Party in 1985,
he set about introducing civil rights, a free press and all the trappings of a democracy,
in what had been a dictatorship.

Instead of supporting him in these undertakings, the two ant-Communist heroes
undermined him. A totalitarian system cannot be changed entirely overnight,
but Gorby certainly did his best.

Unfortunately, the economy didn’t pick up, so Gorby wasn’t as popular at home
as he was abroad.

He was trying to take it step by step with the goal of forming a Soviet Commonwealth.

The West egged him on, and his friend, Ronnie said:
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,”
referring to the Berlin Wall.
The negotiator sent to make things happen fast was Condoleezza Rice.

What happened? Gorby cleared out of East Germany, let it go to NATO,
and got a pittance for doing so.

Now Gorby had more or less been brought to the edge.

The Russian generals said something to the effect of,
“This is madness. We have just lost World War II,
and we must put an end to having
a political Santa Claus in the saddle.”

A coup was staged in 1991.

Boris Yeltsin stepped onto the stage, put it down,
pushed Gorby over the edge and took over.
That signified the end of all the reforms.
Every republic wanted to go it alone, and some took a very bloody path.
And the blood is still flowing

Yeltsin was a drunk and a demagogue in that order.
He let things slide, and in 1999, when they got too far out of hand,
he turned the country over to Vladimir Putin, a former KGB man.

The Union is broken up; the reforms have gone down the drain.
Repression and terrorism reign supreme in Russia
and most of the former republics.

Russia is still equipped with a nuclear arsenal,
and Vladimir Putin is more erratic than his former comrades.

Since Gorby’s departure hundreds of journalists have been sent into the next world.[1]

Gorby has been relegated to speaking tours and doing TV commercials for Pizza Hut
and the Austrian National Railways, too humiliating to describe.

The world would have been a lot better off if Gorbachev had taken
the slow but certain road – minus the ads.
But what’s the sense of wishful thinking in hindsight?
We’ve got the world that we have.

Thank you Ron and John!

 

Putin’s Proof

Putin proved that a communist
can be the best capitalist.
It’s all about power and money.
Money and power are synonyms.

 

Whitey

If you’re black, brown, red, yellow or a non-Gentile,
you can’t be a WASP,
but you can be Whitey,
otherwise known as The Man.
(And of course gender
is no obstacle
to qualify for that appellation.)

All you have to do
is put your own kind
behind you
and join those who formerly
put you in your place.

They need you now.
There are ticklish situations
to be taken care of.
And nobody is as well-suited
as those who used to be excluded.
Their enthusiasm is unparalleled.

– Herbert Kuhner