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Walter C Uhler » Entries tagged with "Mikhail Gorbachev"

Is the United States of America Addicted to War?

May 8th, 2008 | Add a Comment

Mikhail Gorbachev is not a frivolous man. He was the Soviet leader who introduced the conceptual breakthrough of “mutual security” to Soviet-American relations, as well as the man who did more than any other individual to bring the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion. (See http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011231/uhler/single) In my opinion, he ranks as the greatest statesman of the twentieth century (something I was able to tell him personally, when we talked in St. Petersburg, Russia in May 2006). So, when Mr. Gorbachev says, “Every US president has to have a war,” and “I sometimes have the feeling that the United States is going to wage war against the entire world,” – as was reported by the Telegraph.co.uk on May … Read entire article »

Filed under: American History, Bush Administration, Foreign Policy, Politics

Inciting a New Cold War: Hypocritical U.S. Views about Russia’s Democracy

May 13th, 2007 | Add a Comment

To be presented at the 16th Annual Russian-American Seminar, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, May 15-22, 2007 Speaking to the United States Senate Appropriations subcommittee last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice commented upon the “difficult period” afflicting recent Russian-American relations. She asserted, “the Russians, I think, do not accept fully that our relations with countries that are their neighbors, that once were part of the Soviet Union, are quite honestly good relations between independent states and the United States. Had she been more forthright and understanding, however, she would have acknowledged that the U.S. “does not accept fully” the pursuit of “good relations between independent states” in its back yard. It’s called the Monroe Doctrine Moreover, and … Read entire article »

Filed under: Foreign Policy, Russian History

Gorbachev Calls Cheney a “Durak” (fool, idiot)

May 31st, 2006 | Add a Comment

It was Friday evening, May 19, 2006. My spouse (Carol DePrisco) and I were dining at Barron – the house restaurant of St. Petersburg’s recently refurbished Petro Palace Hotel (located on Malaya Morskaya street, just one block east of St. Issac’s Cathedral and two blocks west of bustling Nevsky Prospect). We were dining with a retired professor of English from St. Petersburg State University. At the very outset of our conversation, the professor inquired: “You are not a Republican, are you?” I assured her I wasn’t, thus breaking the ice for a very pleasant and engaging conversation during dinner and afterward in our spacious hotel suite. Nevertheless, she was quite astounded by my immense admiration for Mikhail Gorbachev, disdain for Boris Yeltsin and concern … Read entire article »

Filed under: Russian History

Misreading the Soviet Threat

March 15th, 2001 | Add a Comment

Originally published in The Journal of Slavic Military Studies (London) Review Of: Noel E. Firth and James H. Noren, Soviet Defense Spending: A History of CIA Estimates, 1950-1990, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1998. Pp.xix + 291, appendices, notes, references, index. $49.95. ISBN 0-89096-805-5 Anne Hessing Cahn, Killing Detente: The Right Attacks the CIA, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. Pp.viii + 232, appendix, glossary, bibliog., index. $24.50. ISBN 0-271-01791-0 Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Pp.604, notes, index. $30. ISBN 0-684-81081-6 Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Pp.592, glossary, notes, index. $30. … Read entire article »

Filed under: American History, Book Reviews, Military History, Russian History

Blaming Gorbachev for Army’s Downfall: Review of Blaming Gorbachev for Army’s Downfall, by William E. Odom

March 14th, 1999 | Add a Comment

Originally published in The Philadelphia Inquirer During a distinguished career in the U.S. Army, which he concluded as director of the National Security Agency, retired Lt. Gen. William E. Odom emerged as one the nation’s foremost authorities on the military of the Soviet Union. He brings that knowledge to the first five chapters of his latest book, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, when explaining how the military arrived at its enviable position in Soviet society by the mid-1980s. The remaining 11 chapters provide a thorough and rigorous investigation of the reasons for its collapse, paying particular attention to the military policies of Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Not only does Odom incorporate much of the most recent scholarship, archival discoveries, and memoir evidence into both … Read entire article »

Filed under: Book Reviews, Military History, Russian History