daveman
Diamond Member
A Cold Shoulder for Cold-War Vets
Disgrace: Barack Obama Broke Promise to Honor Cold War Veterans
his weekend, Americans will honor soldiers who fought the country's wars, from the Somme to Kandahar. In Manassas, Va., 30 miles from the nation's capital, a parade on Saturday will honor veterans of another big war: the one that never happened.
The Cold War, from 1945 to the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991, was all about avoiding total nuclear war. It turned hot in Korea and Vietnam and sparked conflicts from Lebanon to Grenada. But soldiers on duty between flare-ups didn't do battle. When the war that wasn't came to an end, they got no monuments, no victory medals.
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In 2006, Mr. Almquist, who lives in Illinois, complained to his then-senator, Barack Obama. Mr. Obama emailed back, calling a Cold War medal "appropriate," and hoping "that this impasse can be broken soon." It wasn't. Now the vets intend to ask him to create the medal by executive order.
They have campaigned, too, to have May 1 (communism's May Day) declared Cold War Victory Day. Maine and Kansas have done it. Independently, Matamoras, Pa., has put up a Cold War monument. San Diego had a Cold War parade in 2010. Omaha had one last July.
The Cold War, from 1945 to the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991, was all about avoiding total nuclear war. It turned hot in Korea and Vietnam and sparked conflicts from Lebanon to Grenada. But soldiers on duty between flare-ups didn't do battle. When the war that wasn't came to an end, they got no monuments, no victory medals.
--
In 2006, Mr. Almquist, who lives in Illinois, complained to his then-senator, Barack Obama. Mr. Obama emailed back, calling a Cold War medal "appropriate," and hoping "that this impasse can be broken soon." It wasn't. Now the vets intend to ask him to create the medal by executive order.
They have campaigned, too, to have May 1 (communism's May Day) declared Cold War Victory Day. Maine and Kansas have done it. Independently, Matamoras, Pa., has put up a Cold War monument. San Diego had a Cold War parade in 2010. Omaha had one last July.
Disgrace: Barack Obama Broke Promise to Honor Cold War Veterans
The U.S. has thus far failed to honor those who served in the long struggle against communism, which began almost as soon as the Second World War had ended. Though communist regimes--especially Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China, and satellites such as Pol Pot's Cambodia--committed more murders than the Nazis, few Americans are aware of the absolute moral evil that communism represents, or the sacrifices made to stop it.
The fact that the U.S. government has never formally recognized Cold War veterans has meant they have been excluded from veterans' groups such as the American Legion, which only includes veterans from periods of "hot" wars, regardless of where or how the veterans served. The U-2 pilots who provided essential intelligence; the soldiers who kept watch in Berlin; the sailors who were silent sentinels aboard submarines, tracking Soviet movements, ready to strike--all have gone unheralded, and largely uncelebrated, even on Veterans Day.
It is possible that the reluctance to honor Cold War veterans springs from a political motive. Many on the left opposed the tough line taken against communism by Presidents from Truman to Reagan; many still think of communism as a legitimate alternative economic model that was never given a real chance at success due to western opposition and political failures in implementation. An entire generation of American youth has been educated in the years since the Cold War ended without much idea of how it was fought, by whom, or why.
The official position of the Obama administration is that the Cold war "was not actually a war," in the words of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Elizabeth King. For all his happy talk at about assisting veterans, President Barack Obama has left thousands of the nation's heroes on the sidelines.
They won the longest and most important war of our nation's history, freeing millions from totalitarianism. But the nation they served has yet to commend them--and the president has, disgracefully, failed to honor his promise.
The fact that the U.S. government has never formally recognized Cold War veterans has meant they have been excluded from veterans' groups such as the American Legion, which only includes veterans from periods of "hot" wars, regardless of where or how the veterans served. The U-2 pilots who provided essential intelligence; the soldiers who kept watch in Berlin; the sailors who were silent sentinels aboard submarines, tracking Soviet movements, ready to strike--all have gone unheralded, and largely uncelebrated, even on Veterans Day.
It is possible that the reluctance to honor Cold War veterans springs from a political motive. Many on the left opposed the tough line taken against communism by Presidents from Truman to Reagan; many still think of communism as a legitimate alternative economic model that was never given a real chance at success due to western opposition and political failures in implementation. An entire generation of American youth has been educated in the years since the Cold War ended without much idea of how it was fought, by whom, or why.
The official position of the Obama administration is that the Cold war "was not actually a war," in the words of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Elizabeth King. For all his happy talk at about assisting veterans, President Barack Obama has left thousands of the nation's heroes on the sidelines.
They won the longest and most important war of our nation's history, freeing millions from totalitarianism. But the nation they served has yet to commend them--and the president has, disgracefully, failed to honor his promise.
