As critics within as without the United States voice incomprehension about America's brand-new tariffs all the while raving and ranting about the move as a "war" started by Donald Trump, it is far from inappropriate to recall one of the last "battles" of the Cold War.
During the 1980s, outrage erupted all over the West as Ronald Reagan went ahead with plans (pre-dating his election) to install medium-range nuclear weapons in Western Europe.
Ronald Reagan, of course, was another heinous and brainless Republican duly detested across the globe not to mention another fascist or (neo-)Nazi who was willing to start the Third World War in addition to being the latest Adolf Hitler.
And leftists everywhere, from America to Europe West as well as East, took to the streets to protest against the deranged "Hollywood actor" and the Pershing II missiles which would, but of course, start World War III.
But here a question arises: Why was Washington (not to mention its Western European allies) in favor of alleged escalation in the first place and insistent on installing nuclear-capable theater-level weapons in (Western) Europe?
For one major reason. Because the Soviet Union had started a policy of installing nuclear-capable theater-level weapons in (Eastern) Europe. Indeed, hundreds of the USSR's SS-20s were already installed throughout the countries of the Warsaw Pact when NATO's decision went through to reestablish military balance between East and West.
But nobody ever protested the Kremlin's SS-20s. Certainly nobody in the East, but nobody in the West either.
In fact, I recall one demonstration in Paris. When one single solitary pacifist decided that he would add one single solitary sign against the SS-20s to the hundreds if not thousands of signs against Uncle Sam's Pershings, the sign was torn to pieces and the guy may even have been beaten up. (Some pacifism!)
As François Mitterrand famously said, despite being a Socialist pressured to sympathize with Moscow's communists while decoupling from Washington's capitalists, "I too am against the Euromissiles. However, I do notice some simple truths: The pacifists are in the West, while the missiles are in the East." Another Socialist, Germany's Helmut Schmidt, also went along with the deployment (before being replaced by Helmut Kohl).
Among the useful idiots was my girlfriend's sister who insisted that "Vi vil ikke forsvares med atomvåben" ("we do not want to be protected by nuclear weapons", which is akin to saying we do not want to be protected by guns, only with knives, no matter what weapons the other side has) — to the ire of the elder members of her family, some of whom had lived through the Germans' occupation of Denmark in the 1940s.
Naïve Danes wanted the country to exit the NATO structure; then, they insisted, the Russians would not invade even if they attacked the rest of the NATO countries. After the Warsaw Pact broke up, Polish and other Eastern European officers divulged Soviet military plans to the West, and needless to say, the Scandinavian country, aka the door to the Baltic Sea, would be invaded and occupied no matter what its neutrality status. Indeed, military plans allowed for half a dozen atomic bombs (or missiles) to be dropped on the country immediately as the war broke out — started unilaterally by the USSR (whose motivations the pacifists kept telling us we had to try and understand).
Between 1983 and 1985, the Pershing IIs started being installed in Western Europe. Previously, Reagan had given voice to the Zero Option, whereby no Pershings would arrive in Europe if the Kremlin removed its SS20s from the continent.
With Mikhail Gorbachev getting the top job in Moscow ("I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together", said Margaret Thatcher), the message got through to the Soviets that if they removed their SS20s from Eastern Europe, the Pershings would disappear as well. That is what eventually happened: Reagan's Zero Option had come around full circle and had led to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987.
Congratulations, Ronald Reagan. (Even if — to its ever-lasting shame — the Nobel Prize Committee awarded its peace prize only to Gorbachev, leaving Reagan out to dry.)
What leftists and other useful idiots called outrageous behavior and an insane step towards World War III turned out to be the exact opposite and, indeed, a win-win situation.
Isn't this similar to what, 40 years later, is behind Donald Trump's "tariff war"?
Related: "Brutal Americans"? The issue is that we've never been brutal enough — with the evil of the world or with those who would take advantage of us, as a nation or as taxpayers
