22nd anniversary
Two years ago I put up a page recognizing one of the most important days of citizen action during the Reagan era. This was the June 12, 1982 march for Nuclear Disarmament and the nuclear weapons Freeze Movement in New York City.
A week of hoopla revisiting Reagan’s Cold War policies has given zero, zip, no credit to the massive peace movement of that period two decades ago for helping to set limits on that administration, then dangerously out of control. No one with a mass media presence in current times is about to suggest that Reagan intensified and needlessly lengthened the arms race with the former Soviet Union.
The next few postings and archive readings will examine this important history.
June 15th, 2004 at 11:50
Are you actually saying that deploying Pershing missiles in Europe and the threat of SDI were not instrumental in bringing the Soviets to the bargaining table? I don’t think even Gorbachev would be that dense.
June 16th, 2004 at 04:57
That the Soviets and the Americans were brought to the bargaining table in response to the biggest mass deployment of weapons of planetary destruction in world history is indisputable. Thank God for that, and I do appreciate Reagan’s role in stepping an out-of-control administration back from the brink run up to by 1987.
And no, density is not a fault of Gorbachev.
My larger point would be that American intransigence and insistence upon frenzied weapons “modernization” (including laughable SDI) has prolonged the arms race ordeal, needlessly raised the danger level, clearly bankrupted the old USSR but also has had untold deletarious economic effects on the US–and STILL might result in planetary conflagration of unpredictable magnitude.
Stay tuned, I have a lot more to say on these issues.
June 16th, 2004 at 10:12
Okay, I’ll stay tuned, but remember: the money we spent on the arms race was not wasted. It not only contributed to the downfall of the USSR, but it kept hundreds of thousands of highly-skilled American engineers, scientists, laborers, and bureaucrats gainfully employed for decades. It also added value to many of our technology-based industries. So no regrets on that score.
June 16th, 2004 at 14:55
A terribly interesting question is provoked by this last comment: To what extent is the real motivation behind America’s hysterical drive towards r & d, and acquisition of new megaweapons economic?
Does the Pentagon system of subsidy for high-technology industry transcend US security needs? We better start paying attention, as much current Pentagon spending is in the Cold War anachronism category.
June 16th, 2004 at 18:03
” . . . it kept hundreds of thousands of highly-skilled American engineers, scientists, laborers, and bureaucrats gainfully employed for decades” in the, you know, killing-people industry.
Cold War/Hot War.
They’re good for the economy
Who’s economy?
June 19th, 2004 at 07:35
Does the Pentagon system of subsidy for high-technology industry transcend US security needs?
Why are those two things mutually exclusive in your view? So-called pragmatists bitch about how wasteful the race to the Moon was, but where would our economy (and, indeed, our culture) be today without such “wastefulness”?
June 20th, 2004 at 07:16
At this point I am posing the question with the recognition I have not proven any case yet. The commenter displays an understanding of US science/engineering enterprises that is typical and enhanced by decades of PR–namely that “spin-offs” and such from the space and military weapons programs have been fundamental engines for improvement of our lives.
I will shortly begin to present here detailed answers based on my 25 years of participation in science/engineering/education enterprises, most of that stretch as a peace activist.
In short, some of the product built for Space/War indisputably has crossed the threshold into the defining sphere of our lives. Ever ride a Boeing 7-series jet? Yep, military product.
But there is much to the issue of how humanity could be different, on a more peaceful course, if different decisions had been/were being made.