War with Russia by Stephen F Cohen

Author:Stephen F Cohen [Cohen, Stephen F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: non-fiction
ISBN: 9781510745810
Publisher: Hot Books
Published: 2018-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

The Silence of the Doves

September 20 / September 27

APERILOUS PARADOX: WHY, UNLIKE DURING THE 40-year Cold War, is there no significant American mainstream opposition to the new and more dangerous Cold War? In particular, from the 1960s through the 1980s, there were many anti–Cold War, or pro-détente, voices in the American political-media-corporate establishment—in the White House, Congress, State Department, political parties, influential print and broadcast outlets, universities and think tanks, major US corporations, even in elections.

That is, debates about Washington policy toward Moscow were the norm during the preceding Cold War, at the very top and at grassroots levels. as befits a democracy. As to the former, I can provide personal testimony. In November 1989, the first President George Bush convened at Camp David virtually his entire national-security team to attend a debate between myself—I was then at Princeton and, as now, a pro-détente advocate—and Harvard professor Richard Pipes, a renowned “hardliner,” on the pressing issue of whether the détente under way with the Soviet Union under Gorbachev should be expanded or reversed.

And yet, today, despite escalating perils in US-Russian relations from the Baltic region and Ukraine to Syria, despite the circumstance that Russia’s ruling elites are no longer Communists but professed capitalists, there is virtually none of that. Even the well-organized grassroots anti-nuke movement that once animated pro-détente politics in elections has all but vanished. In the vernacular of the preceding Cold war, political struggles between American “hawks” and “doves” no longer exist. Everywhere, hawks prevail and doves are silent, even in corporations with major Russian investments.

I cannot explain this exceedingly dangerous paradox, only point out some partial factors:

The longtime demonization of Russian President Putin has been an inhibiting factor since the early 2000s. The vilification of President Trump has intensified it. Mainstream Americans skeptical about Washington’s Russia policies worry about being labeled “pro-Putin” and/or “pro-Trump.” That anyone need worry about such slurs is deplorable, but they do.

There is also the neo-McCarthyism that has grown considerably since Trump’s election. As official investigations into alleged “collusion with Russia” become more promiscuous and well-funded campaigns to ferret out “Russian disinformation” in US media unfold, a self-censoring chill has descended on policy discussions. No one wants to be suspected of “collusion with the Kremlin” or of conveying “Russian propaganda.” Nor is this merely self-censorship. Major media outlets regularly exclude critics of Washington’s Russia policy from their news reports, opinion pages, and TV and radio broadcasts.

On the other hand, some have argued that the persistence and prevalence of Cold War politics is best explained by a nativist American social tradition that “needs an enemy,” and more often than not Russia has been assigned this role. Having grown up in Kentucky and lived in Indiana, Florida, New York, and New Jersey, I find no evidence for this “blame the people” explanation. Nor do periodic opinion surveys.

The fault lies with America’s governing elites. Two recent developments illustrate that conclusion. US political-media elites fully expected that post-Soviet Russia would become, during the “transition” of the 1990s, Washington’s junior and compliant partner in world affairs.

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