Cold War – Lee Duigon

Crisis, Anyone?

leeduigonFebruary 23, 2022

55 years later: Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis | American University, Washington, D.C.

I grew up in the old Cold War, and there was always a crisis brewing somewhere. Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall, Hungarian Revolt, Chicoms grab Tibet–always something.

But usually only one at a time!

The World’s Smartest People have had a few decades to refine their crisis art; so now, in 2022, they’re able to depress us with three crises at a time. Brought to you by the Slojo Biden team: Russia to invade Ukraine, China to invade Taiwan, and Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, courtesy of the Democrat Party. And that doesn’t count various domestic crises, juggled by the Ruling Class throughout the world. Canada, Australia, Venezuela…

Satan’s behind it, and these are his servants.

The Stupidest Idea Ever

leeduigonJune 25, 2020

What If We Detonated a Nuclear Bomb on the Moon? - YouTube

I’d heard about this story for years, but always thought it was an urban legend: the top-secret plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119).

The secret came out in 2000. Project A119, aka “A Study of Lunar Research Flights,” was a plan, in 1958, to kaboom the Moon with a nuclear bomb. A few years later we learned the folks in the Soviet Union had a similar project in the works. The flash was expected to be visible with the naked eye from the Earth–and was expected to “boost morale” of the American people.

A couple of nagging problems soon became apparent:

–What if they, like, missed the moon? Wouldn’t the nuclear bomb then fall back to earth? Oops.

–What if the explosion, uh, did something to the Moon? Like maybe knock it out of its orbit. That could get dicey.

The project was abandoned owing to fear of a “negative public reaction.” They blew up the Moon??? They blew up the freakin’ Moon??? Are they [blank]ing crazy???”

It’s rather nice that we never found out what would happen if they did it.

The Girl Who Did ‘The Sack of Rome’

leeduigonApril 29, 2020

I know a lot of you don’t play chess, but stick with me: this is a very cool story.

In 1989 there was still a Soviet Union and for all we knew, it would always be. It was the Russian bear, the colossus. The Evil Empire, in President Ronald Reagan’s words. The boogieman of my own childhood. Remember “duck and cover”? That was in case the Soviets bombed us.

Part of the Soviets’ veneer of invincibility was the Soviet chess establishment. American Bobby Fischer gave them a nasty shock in 1972, with the Cold War still raging, when he took the world title from Boris Spassky, but by and by the Soviets reasserted their dominance in world chess. Chess in the Soviet Union was a government project; they sought to use it to “prove” the superiority of communism.

That year, 1989, there was an open chess tournament in Rome. The Soviets were expected to sweep it.

Enter Zsofia Polgar, age 14, from Hungary. Her eldest sister, Zsusa, was women’s world champion in 1986. Her younger sister, Judit, was the world’s top women’s chess player for 26 years in a row. But as you know, the middle child is sometimes overlooked.

In one of the most shocking sports upsets of all time, the teenaged Zsofia mowed down all the top Russian Grand Masters and won the tournament, earning the highest rating ever achieved in an open tournament in chess history (https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=41322). Her achievement went down in history as “The Sack of Rome.”

Two years later, in December of 1991, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. It ceased to exist. The world’s most feared political and military power was no more.

We can only speculate as to how much Zsofia’s Sack of Rome damaged the Soviet Union. It wasn’t like they published papers about how demoralized they were. But it is a fact that this girl, this 14-year-old from Hungary, went up against the government-sponsored, government-directed Soviet chess establishment… and wiped up the floor with them. It’s difficult not to see in this a portent of things to come–and surely a sign that Soviet invincibility was nothing but a hollow shell.

Not bad for a middle child!