Personal Narrative: The Cold War

It is 1945 and some of my generation has already arrived, with more yet to come. The month is June and I just arrived. President Truman is in office. The war in Europe just ended, and the war with Japan is about to end. The Cold War has started but it will be two years before they officially call it the Cold War. In case you were wondering that is me in the carriage, as you can see I am not really too concerned about world events as of yet. I’m pretty sure that the rest of my generation isn’t either. It is also my guess that we won’t be for a while. However, as I said history is relevant and many world events will take place in the next nineteen years that will lead some of us toward war, and others toward what I believe to committing the unforgivable crime of treason.

In 1961 President John F Kennedy put together a doctrine, which altered from President Eisenhower’s one. It was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare.” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58) It was a time when the Cold War was at its height and nuclear weapons a mass threat and source of power. This doctrine was aimed at using alternative means before opening into combat. This, in light of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it succeeded in doing.

The Third Reich was a racially motivated killing machine that resulted in the death of six million Jews. However, the regime’s murderous campaign was a response to a set of circumstances that allowed it to obtain control over Germany. Today, the question of what circumstances ignited the Third Reich has gained attention from historians all over the world while creating a variety of possibilities. Thus, the different perspectives have caused the subject to become controversial among the devoted historians. This is especially true when considering the views of writers Daniel J. Goldhagen, Robert Gellately, Hans Mommsen, and Norman M. Naimark.

I hated that stupid rock. I couldn’t move it, climb over it, or swim through the river around it. That wouldn’t count. Part of me hoped that the rock would tip over and fall into the water so I could laugh as it tumbled away, but I knew I couldn’t be that lucky. I wanted to kick it halfway across the globe or punch it up until it was nothing but rubble. I couldn’t though, because it’s a rock, I’m a human and human-rock relations just don’t work that way. Maybe I would get lucky and someone from Romania would randomly decide to make a display of gigantic stones from around the world. I wondered if the rock would pity me and move out of the way if I cried. But it’s a rock, rocks don’t seem to have emotions.

Time itself was frozen. Yesterday was cold, but not like this. Now, it is almost zero. I stepped across the carpeted floor as the support wood creaked under thermal contraction. The staircase shivered as I descended. No one was there except for an old wooden table and a fork. Slowly sliding across the frozen floor, I navigate the dark maze of hallways that is my first floor. I grab my ski jacket, put on my boots and slide outside without a sound. No one is anywhere, and as far as my family is concerned, I am still asleep. I begin to work at creating my arsenal. I mobilize for a total war.

In it is murky water, filled with slime, dirt, and other foreign objects. I drink anyways, greedily gulping it down, only pausing to breathe. Then, the bucket is taken away and a bowl of food is placed in front of me. I look inside the bowl. There is not pellets like I was expecting. The food that they gave me was bread, a chunk of cheese, and some turkey. I look up into the eyes of the guard who put it in front of me and he looks away. But in the split second that I saw his eyes, I saw other things too. Guilt. Sorrow. Fear. Doubt. I again try to speak but the shock is too great. Why would an enemy soldier feel those things for me? My strength is quickly leaving my body, exhausting me. I am unable to search for the name of the soldier that is so torn at looking at me in my pathetic state. As I lose consciousness, the only thing in my narrow vision is the dirty boots of that

“My battalion went up to the Danish front today. That bastard shot up almost all of us. He’s almost got up to Magdeburg in his territory.” Ludwig took off his own faithful rifle, handing it to Gilbert in hopes his brother would clean it.

Everything was quiet, masked by the thick morning mist. We closed in upon our prey like wolves in a herd of sheep. Our Foggy cover did not last much longer, as we closed in on the beach, but we needed that victory, like a wolf needs its supper. Everything was resting on the shoulders of that one moment, the moment we set foot upon the Turkish shores. That was the moment when we would know if victory could be seized.

That night a gun shot rang out across the camp. Jake grabbed a knife and ran out of his bunk. Lying on the ground in the center of camp was Sam. He had shot himself in the head beneath a tree. Carved into the trunk of the tree was a sentence and it read, “I am forever sorry brother, I shall join you so I can never let you down again – Your comrade, Sam”. When Jake

It was one of me, against an army of them. The tall humanoid beings were swarming the objective in packs. There was no hope of victory, with all of my companions either incapacitated or deceased, but I was the only thing between them and the objective, I wasn’t going to survive, I knew that, but the lab’s safety was our nation’s last hope, so I charged.

I’m trying to remember how things were from 1962 to 1963. A time when I was 16 years old. It was a different time, a time of experiences I didn’t expect, to be sure. As I write this fifty-two years later, it all seems a bit surreal.

Nearly four years ago, when I was only twenty, I spent six months volunteering in Moscow as a Hebrew teacher and dorm counselor. I went for practical, hands-on experience and for an opportunity to give back to the Jewish community. The charity school where I worked had both dorm and orphanage students from all over Russia, the dorm students came from troubled or broken homes, while orphans were bussed in daily from the orphanage. Having just finished three years in rabbinical school I was fluent in Hebrew, and with my Russian heritage, and my training and heart to serve, this was the perfect opportunity.

Larkin recalled a past life almost perfectly, but since that wasn’t enough for him he had an out of body vision. I swear he’s probably going to kill himself on his own; I wish I knew way his past lives are coming so easily now, he knows about Egypt and Japan, what’s next his time in the army in WW2, who knew apparently not me…….

The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in major shift in United States foreign policy. For years, the United States supported tyrannical dictators in return for stable anti-communist government receptive to United States interests. The Cold War resulted in a new world order with the United States as the lone global hegemonic power. In Eastern Europe in particular, the end of the Cold War ushered in an era of economic growth and a large increase in the number of liberal democracies. Although the world saw a large increase in liberal democracies, a new regime type referred to as competitive authoritarianism began to emerge. According to Levitsky and Way, “In competitive authoritarian regimes, formal

The most important turning point in contemporary history was propitiated by the end of the Cold War, when one of the fields of the bipolar era disappeared, opening the way for a unipolar world under American imperial hegemony. The United States immediately began to use its unquestionable superiority, seeking to transfer the conflicts to the military confrontation. The apex of this policy of militarization of conflicts was in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya (Missiroli, 2015). Although in relatively different ways, the outcome of the conflicts was by military means - invasion, occupation, bombardment, overthrow of governments (Monteiro, 2014). Even with wear and tear, this road was imposed until recently without any obstacles to US domination. Until the conflict with Syria, which was heading for a bombing of the territory of that country, had an unexpected turn, with a proposal of agreement formulated by the US Minister of Relations and accepted by the US.