The Russians Aren't Coming: New Soviet Policy In Latin America
These essays, presented at a November 1990 conference, were written when there still was a Soviet Union and when some analysts were still arguing that Mikhail Gorbachev's "new thinking" was a tactical respite and Soviet formulations concerning the end of world revolution but a ruse. Although developments since then have made some of the volume anachronistic and its arguments somewhat moot, the essays remain important in showing that there was never as much of a Soviet presence, influence or "threat" in the Western hemisphere as Washington policymakers said and probably genuinely believed.
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American presidents have usually inherited poor relations with the Soviet Union. President Eisenhower, of course, was confronted by the tensions of Korea and President Kennedy by the Berlin crisis. Lyndon Johnson was a temporary exception, but Richard Nixon inherited Vietnam and the Czech crisis. Gerald Ford had to deal with a faltering détente, and Jimmy Carter was embroiled in early disputes. In January 1981, Ronald Reagan found himself in much the same position as his predecessors, except that relations were worse than usual. Indeed, relations were frozen. Even the outgoing Administration was pessimistic. The departing American Ambassador to the U.S.S.R., Thomas J. Watson, Jr., summed up the prevailing gloom: "I don't think the West has any conception of how dismal the future looks for East-West relations."
Reprints extracts of an article first published in the Apr 1951 issue of FA, after the Korean invasion had intensified the Cold War, which prophetically described the possible characteristics of a post-Soviet Russia, of which US foreign policy-makers ought to be cognizant. The reprint does not make clear where the 'cuts' have been made.
The next president will have to reassess the U.S.-Russian relationship and find the right balance between pushing back and cooperating.

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