![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Oct. 24th, 2004 01:08 amPaul Nitze has died. He is the architect of NSC-68 and thus, at least on the US side, the architect of the Cold War. He was the one who decided that "containment" of Communism wasn't enough. It had to be eradicated and could never be allowed to spread.
Thanks to him, the US ended up in Viet Nam. Thanks to him, there are people not much older than I am who can remember being taught how to protect themselves from nuclear weapons by hiding under their desks.
Nitze's doctrine led to a wall around West Berlin and to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He wasn't the President or a member of Congress. Unlike George Kennan, he wasn't a diplomat. Yet this one man, in getting his ideas heard and acted upon, probably had a heavier influence of the course of recent history than any three public men.
When I was studying for my (incomplete) master's degree in International Relations, he was considered the primary influence. It was one of the many ways that I felt separate and isolated from the military men with whom I was taking classes. I thought that the earlier idea of containment wasn't a bad one.
I also felt that one person could influence history, that international systems could have spanners thrown in their works by one person at the right time. My primary historic example for this has always been Great Britain's King John. By being venal and generally unlikable Runnymede happened, and Magna Carta was written. From Magna Carta came the Declaration of Independence. Had John been a nicer fellow or a better politician, we might not be the United States today.
Nitze is another. His rhetoric shaped our worldview for over thirty years. Decisions that were made reflecting that worldview became precedents for later decisions. I don't think it's a stretch to say that without Nitze and NSC-68, we might not be in Iraq now.
I wish I could think that he was evil. I can't even be certain that he was misguided. His death is the end of one era of fear -- for me, more so than the Berlin Wall coming down.
I could wish that we weren't living in another.
Thanks to him, the US ended up in Viet Nam. Thanks to him, there are people not much older than I am who can remember being taught how to protect themselves from nuclear weapons by hiding under their desks.
Nitze's doctrine led to a wall around West Berlin and to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He wasn't the President or a member of Congress. Unlike George Kennan, he wasn't a diplomat. Yet this one man, in getting his ideas heard and acted upon, probably had a heavier influence of the course of recent history than any three public men.
When I was studying for my (incomplete) master's degree in International Relations, he was considered the primary influence. It was one of the many ways that I felt separate and isolated from the military men with whom I was taking classes. I thought that the earlier idea of containment wasn't a bad one.
I also felt that one person could influence history, that international systems could have spanners thrown in their works by one person at the right time. My primary historic example for this has always been Great Britain's King John. By being venal and generally unlikable Runnymede happened, and Magna Carta was written. From Magna Carta came the Declaration of Independence. Had John been a nicer fellow or a better politician, we might not be the United States today.
Nitze is another. His rhetoric shaped our worldview for over thirty years. Decisions that were made reflecting that worldview became precedents for later decisions. I don't think it's a stretch to say that without Nitze and NSC-68, we might not be in Iraq now.
I wish I could think that he was evil. I can't even be certain that he was misguided. His death is the end of one era of fear -- for me, more so than the Berlin Wall coming down.
I could wish that we weren't living in another.
