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Robert Kesten's avatar

Having been on the ground working, when President Bush made the infamous "Chicken Kiev" speech. Advising the CIA on Yeltsin's first visit to the US, suggesting ways to integrate former Soviet Republics (including Russia) into new global age, I think your article's reliance on the assessments of Cold War warriors, undermines what was possible at the time the walls came down. Had US leadership, from G.H.W. Bush on down been willing to think beyond their limited understanding of the world, our planet would be a much safer place to live, and NATO would not be a topic of discussion as other possibilities and ideas would have bridged what are now intractable rivers between east and west. It was not the West's military limits that destroyed prospects for peace, it was their fear of ideas and engagement. It was not a near naked Yeltsin in DC that was the problem, it was putting him in a box that led to Putin's rise that was the problem. Mindset between old liners and Millennials is not the issue, thinking of what could be, rather than fiefdoms was and is.

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Peter Beinart's avatar

thank you

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