Behind the Iron Curtain

When I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, Walter Cronkite always talked about the “Cold War”, the Communists, the East Germans and the Soviet Union. They were all our enemies. Our military trained almost exclusively for conventional, nuclear and biological war with the Soviet Union. I served in the US Army from 1985 - 1991 and that was our mission, to prepare for war with the Soviet Union. We learned how to recognize Soviet military vehicles and aircraft, Warsaw Pact signs, and to give ourselves atropine injections should we ever get hit with a biological or nerve agent.

Famous Russian artwork of Red SquareThe Red Army

Honestly, I don’t remember much about the Soviet Union while growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. I remember watching the news and hearing things about Mr. Brezhnev and Mr. Gorbachev and about what the Red Army was up to. I watched the movie “Red Dawn” about the Russians invading the USA. That made everyone start thinking, could it ever happen? We used to watch the show “All in the Family”. Archie Bunker was a pretty big talker when it came to Russians. He called them, “Pinko Commies”. One thing that sticks out in my memory is the “Apollo-Soyez” space mission in the mid 70’s. That was big news when our spaceship docked with the Russian spaceship. We talked about it a lot in school. And then there was the Mir space station. The only other thing that comes to mind is when President Nixon gave a Lincoln Continental to Mr. Brezhnev as a gift, Brezhnev loved cars and Mr. Brezhnev gave Nixon and his wife a silver samovar and a tea set back in 1973 I think.

Nixon and Brezhnev

Brezhnev cartoons

Russia has always been an interesting subject for my mother. My grandfather was Ukrainian. He escaped from there when Lenin and the Soviets were taking over. I don’t know all of the history behind it though.