My Cold War Years Remembered!

September 05-2009:


My Cold War Years Remembered!

As a child growing up in British Guiana, the Cold War was something of a mystery out of some Novel or Movie. I heard my mother and neighbors mention from time to time, how EVIL The Soviet union was, and how they are planning to use nuclear weapons on the Western hemisphere, because us here in the west are Evil Capitalists, and is a threat to Communism and the ultimate Communist quest for global implementation.

All of those things sounded to me very strange and grave, to say the least. Coupled with that, I would see movies that showed individuals who sought asylum into the USA, and was referred to as DEFECTORS from Communism. And I wondered to myself if that place was really that Evil or Bad, to cause citizens to want to flee from there?

In my naivete, I believed most of what was said on the radio/wireless, the television, and at the movies. And there was an enormous volume of movies showing The Soviet Union in a very negative light, socially, politically, and as a military threat to the West.

I was also very happy when I heard of someone who managed to DEFECT to the West successfully. And the local newspapers showed photos of all those that were able to escape the so-called Iron Curtain. That description also sounded very sinister to me too.

The Fall Of The Berlin Wall:

When the fall of that wall was in progress, I was in amazed, and all the while, watching on television how many Germans from the Western side tried to assist those who were hanging from the wall, or trying to scale it, with the help of some Border guards, But mostly German citizens on the Western Side.

And I wondered how much longer will this continue before the East Side guards said enough was enough, and started shooting them, or started preventing anymore from getting across. But the flow continued un-abated, without interference.

Nikita Krustreuv:

When this man shook his fist with a shoe at the podium, that too made me wonder if he was telling his people, that in time there will be a war with the west. And that he was prepared for it too. Yes, a child's imagination running wild at that time.

Also when US president Ronald Reagan visited there, and the
S.A.L.T. treaty was agreed upon. I felt much relief from that experience and knowledge. I believed that with that trip, and agreement between these two powers, the world was a much safer place to be in now.

Is The Cold War Truly Over?

I believe for those of us who lived during the Cold War era, experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the building and stock piling of Nuclear Weapons between the USA and Russia primarily. It is extremely difficult to put that fear on hold. Or to forget that period in time.

But the current generations of world leaders may not have such baggage to deal with psychologically. And may be better equipped mentally and psychologically, to operate more favorably with Russia, and other states, with or without nuclear weapons.

Derryck.
NYC.