Prophetic from the Memorandum of President Richard Nixon. For a minute, this is March 1992:.
" This is true only half. The Communists lost the Cold War, but the West has not yet won it. Communism collapsed because his ideas failed. Today, the idea of \u200b\u200bfreedom is under trial. If they are not able to provide a better life in Russia and other former Soviet republics, new and more dangerous despotism will come to power, when people exchange freedom for safety and entrust their future into old hands with new persons.
We are experiencing a turning point in history. The historical significance of the democratic revolution in the Soviet Union is comparable only with events such as Napoleon’s defeat under Waterloo in 1815. , Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. , the creation of NATO and the Marshall plan in 1948. A centenary of stability in Europe, the sliding of the Second World War in the 1920-30s, as well as the half-century successful deterrence of the Soviet Union-all this was determined by how the statesmen of large powers reacted to these critical moments. While today we are facing the possibilities and dangers of the same order, the West has not yet been able to take advantage of the moment to form the history of the next fifty years.
Russia is the key to success. It is there that the last battle of the Cold War will be won or lost. Bets could not be higher. If freedom wins in Russia - if the economic reforms of President Yeltsin lead to the creation of a successful market economy - the future promises to reduce the costs of service, cooperation in overcoming world crises and economic growth by expanding international trade. More importantly, the success of freedom will affect the last isolated strongholds of communism in the world - North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and China. Their leaders will face insurmountable pressure so that they take the first steps to political reform.
If Yeltsin fails, the prospects for the next fifty years will become gloomy. The Russian people will not return to communism. However, a new, more dangerous despotism, based on extremist Russian nationalism, will come to power. We must remember that even before communism in Russia there was an expansionist tradition, numbering seven centuries. The leaders of the new despotism, who have already been organized to take power in the event of the failure of the Yeltsin reforms, will incite nationalist passions and use the tendency of the Russian people to turn to a strong hand - even to the dictatorship - in difficult times.
If new despotism prevails, everything conquered in the Great Peace Revolution of 1991 will be lost. War may erupt in the territory of the former Soviet Union, since new despots use force to restore the " New East European democracies will be in danger. Chinese totalitarian would breathe a sigh of relief.
The new Russian regime, whose leaders will flirt with former clients of the Soviet Union in Iraq, Syria, Libya and North Korea, will threaten our interests in hot spots around the world. He will sell conventional weapons, ballistic missiles and nuclear technologies to any buyer. The new Russian despotism, inspired by imperial nationalism, devoid of baggage of dying faith in communism, would be even more dangerous than Soviet totalitarianism.
If freedom fails in Russia, we will see how a wave of freedom that has overwhelmed the world will begin to retreat, and the wave of the future will become a dictatorship, not democracy "