Depends on what? On whether I’m having breakfast or dinner. That was the opening line in a movie I watched recently, The Coldest of Wars. George Orwell is credited with first using the term Cold War in 1945. I’m a sucker for a good movie about the Cold War. Many of you that are my age, watched it play out in real life.
It is generally accepted that the Cold War period was 12 March 1947 to 26 December 1991. On March 12, 1947, President Truman gave a speech to a joint session of Congress. President Truman said nations could adopt a way of life “based upon the will of the majority” and governments that provided “guarantees of individual liberty” or they could face a way of life “based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority.”
And of course, 26 December 1991 marks the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia, which was a satellite state of the Soviet Union, split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (each country taking half of the name). In 2021, a Czech company named CZ bought Colt, an American icon. It just goes to show, that if you stick around long enough, you’ll witness things that you could never have imagined.
For me, it is James Bond’s Walther PPK. I don’t have one, but I do have a PPK/S. Walther has quite a history. With his factory destroyed in World War II and Zella-Mehlis in the Soviet occupation zone, Walther was reduced to just a collection of designs and patents.
Fritz Walther started anew and began manufacturing in Ulm, West Germany in 1953, but he couldn't yet make firearms. The company resumed production of the P38 (renamed the P1) in 1957 in order to equip the new West German Army, the Bundeswehr, with sidearms. When Fritz Walther died in December 1966, his son, Karl-Heinz, took over the company, which then concentrated on the sports sector.
Because the Allied powers forbade any manufacture of weapons in Germany immediately following WWII, Walther licensed production of the PP series pistols to Manurhin. Manurhin, officially known as Manufacture de Machines du Haut-Rhin, in Haut-Rhin, France started by manufacturing Walther PP, PPK, and PPK/S model pistols in 1952.
Although Pre-Cold War Era, the closest thing I have to a military handgun is this old Colt Pocket Hammerless. These pistols served as General Officer sidearms for years. Collectors of militaria have had an extrordinary opportunity to buy firearms of the Eastern Bloc and see them increase in value by upwards of 300% in recent years. Makarov (Bulgarian), Tokarev (Polish), CZ (Czech) and Fabryka Broni Łucznik (Radom) of Poland are names of Cold War Era Eastern Bloc guns that are showing up in American collections today.
When the Cold War ended in 1991, you would think, alright we are going to have peace. Instead, we had three wars in the following ten years; the Gulf War in Kuwait, the Serbia War and then Afghanistan and Iraq. It is hard to believe that today marks 21 years since September 11, 2001.
Today, there are only two gunmakers that are publicly owned (have their stock listed), Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger and Company. Although German-sounding, the company was founded in 1949 by Alexander McCormick Sturm and William B. Ruger, and has been publicly traded since 1969. Browning is currently a fully owned subsidiary of FN Herstal. Kimber Manufacturing is a privately-owned American company that designs, manufactures, and distributes small arms.
One of the headlines this morning was "Guns bought through credit cards in the US will now be trackable." I'm going to cut my Sunday Blog Post short today and go shop for an S&W, Ruger or Kimber and be sure to pay with a credit card. Very little was mentioned of the anniversary of 9-1-1. The death of Queen Elizabeth II dominates the news today.
What would it feel like To Run the World? The Soviet rulers spent the Cold War trying desperately to find out. In this panoramic new history of the conflict that defined the postwar era, Sergey Radchenko provides an unprecedented deep dive into the psychology of the Kremlin's decision-making. He reveals how the Soviet struggle with the United States and China reflected its irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution.
This tension drove Soviet policies from Stalin's postwar scramble for territory to Khrushchev's reckless overseas adventurism and nuclear brinksmanship, Brezhnev's jockeying for influence in the third world, and Gorbachev's failed attempts to reinvent Moscow's claims to greatness. Perennial insecurities, delusions of grandeur, and desire for recognition propelled Moscow on a headlong quest for global power, with dire consequences and painful legacies that continue to shape our world.
Review
‘The historiography of the Cold War was once too narrowly focused on two superpowers. More recently, it has become blurred by overemphasis on minor players. Sergey Radchenko’s To Run the World brilliantly reconciles the two literatures. Using hitherto unavailable Russian and Chinese sources, he shows that the Cold War was from the outset a ‘three-body problem,’ with the Soviets seeking an unattainable parity with the United States, while China alternately attracted and repelled the other two. American policymakers in the 1960s and 1970s sought ‘détente’ with the Soviets, believing there could be ‘linkage’ to other issues of mutual interest. This was to underestimate the Soviet imperative to retain leadership of revolutionary forces around the world in a bitter competition with Beijing. This is a model of historical writing: scrupulously researched and elegantly presented, To Run the World shows how a volatile interplay of ideological, geopolitical, and psychological forces drove the Cold War on its erratic path.’ Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, and author of Kissinger: 1923–1968: The Idealist
‘A tour de force. Based on a plethora of previously unmined Soviet (and Chinese) sources, To Run the World is thought-provoking, comprehensive narrative of the Soviet Union’s place and aspirations in the global Cold War.’ Kristina Spohr, author of Post Wall, Post Square: Rebuilding the World after 1989
‘If we are entering a new cold war with China, then we should study the lessons from the last Cold War. Radchenko’s To Run the World is the place to start. Drawing on new archival material, insightful analysis, and brilliant writing, Radchenko’s book will instantly become the go-to source for understanding Soviet behavior during the Cold War. This book sets such a high standard that I wonder if any more books on this subject will ever be written.’ Michael McFaul, author of From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin's Russia
My MOS when I served in the United States Army was 76Y. For you non-military readers, the Military Occupational Specialty of 76 Yankee means that I was a Unit Armorer. While on REFORGER 85, I trained with German Paratroopers and qualified as "Expert" with the German G-3 rifle, the Israeli Uzi 9mm sub-machinegun and the 9mm handgun.