I Am A Cold Warrior

Well, because these “quiet men” do not “raise their voices”;

because they sometimes speak in soothing tones of brotherhood and peace;

because, like other dictators before them, they’re always making “their final territorial demand,”

some would have us accept them at their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses.

But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly.

It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.

So, I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority. … 

I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—

the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault,

to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire,

to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding

and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.

– President Ronald Reagan

Snappy dresser, style leader.  With sprinkling of freckles.

In the 1950s, under my desk, just a drill, worry about the damn Reds dropping The Bomb on my tender head before I’d even kissed a girl.

1960, we watched Khrushchev pound his shoe at the United Nations, where I first enjoyed yogurt because only foreigners eat yogurt.  Kennedy cool, blocking Russian warships bringing nuclear missiles to Cuba, which you can see from here.

Ruskie lover shot JFK.  The mid-60s, hot war still in the jungle, cold war still in the mountains, drafting unfortunate sons.  Forced to learn Czechoslovakian – polib mi prdel – hard word even to spell and I was supposed to learn the language because the Russians have conquered half of Europe.  I was on the job when those cocksuckers invaded Czechoslovakia whose people only wanted to sing and dance in free air.

Maybe tell some jokes without fear.

Watched with tears as the Berlin Wall fell.  Practically chuckled at the dissolution of the Soviet Union.