John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Michael E. Meagher ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Presidential Rhetoric ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
The West ◽  
Full Extent ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
West Berlin ◽  
The City

Most Americans in the 1920s and 1930s were unaware of the crimes committed in the Soviet Union. Even today, the full extent of the carnage is unknown. This essay explores the ways in which Presidents Kennedy and Reagan dealt with the contrast between the open societies of the West and the severely damage civil societies of the Soviet bloc through the rhetorical presidency. Key speeches throughout the two administrations stressed the use of presidential rhetoric as a way of challenging the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the USSR. For both Presidents, the key rhetorical moment came in West Berlin, in 1963 and 1987, respectively. Using comparable language Kennedy and Reagan spoke of the hope offered by West Berlin to those suffering under communist rule. The highlight came when Reagan challenged the Soviet leaders to tear down the Wall separating the city. Ironically, the victory over Soviet bloc communism has not led to the elimination of communist regimes, notably China. That chapter in the struggle against communism remains yet to be written.

scholarly journals In the Line of Fire: The Soviet Crackdown of Hungary, 1956-58

1999 ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Johanna Granville
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The West ◽  
Suez Crisis ◽  
The Soviet Union

About forty years ago, the first major anti-Soviet uprising in Eastern Europe-the 1956 Hungarian revolt-took place. Western observers have long held an image of the Soviet Union as a crafty monolith that expertly, in the realpolitik tradition, intervened while the West was distracted by the Suez crisis. People also believed that Soviet repressive organs worked together efficiently to crack down on the Hungarian "counterrevolutionaries. " Newly released documents from five of Moscow's most important archives, including notes ofkey meetings of the presidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) taken by Vladimir Mal in, reveal that the Soviet Union in fact had difficulty working with its Hungarian allies.

scholarly journals Juda Hirsch Quastel, 2 October 1899 - 15 October 1987

1990 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 379-418 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Garment Factories ◽  
The Subject ◽  
East End ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

Juda Hirsch Quastel, who contributed for more than 60 years to the growth of biochemistry, was born in Sheffield, in a room over his father’s rented sweet shop on the Ecclesall Road. The date was 2 October 1899, and his parents, Jonas and Flora (Itcovitz) Quastel, had lived in England for only a few years. They had emigrated separately from the city of Tamopol in eastern Galicia, which was then within the Austro-Hungarian Empire; it has since, after a period under Polish rule, become part of the Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union. Tamopol at the end of the 19th century was a city of some 30 000 and the centre of an agricultural district. Its inhabitants were ethnically mixed, but about half of them were Jews, many of whom under the relatively benevolent Austrian regime were fairly prosperous. Quastel used to recall how his father and grandfather had held the Emperor Franz Joseph in great respect. His grandfather, also Juda Hirsch (married to Yetta Rappoport), had at one time worked as a chemist in a brewery laboratory in Tamopol. The parents of the subject of this biography had been in commerce there, and were not poor; but today’s family members know little about the life of Jonas and Flora in Tamopol, or about the reasons that persuaded them, like many of their neighbours, to emigrate to the West. An uncle had already gone to England, and perhaps had encouraged them to follow because of the greater opportunities. In England they lived at first in London’s east end, where they worked in garment factories; but their move to Sheffield, and to Jonas’s modest entrepreneurship, had been completed in the late 1890s. It was there that Juda Hirsch and his four younger siblings (Charles, Doris, Hetty and Anne) were born.

The Evolution of Centripetal Fraternalism: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

1985 ◽  
Vol 481 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-103
Author(s):  
MARCIN SAR
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Economic Independence ◽  
The West ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Soviet Union

The author comments on the dynamics of Moscow's effort to reconcile its pursuit of control over Eastern Europe with its interest in a viable Eastern Europe, one that is stable and capable of self-sustaining development. Although Moscow has always exercised control in military matters, it allowed some Eastern Europeans economic independence in the 1970s. Changing circumstances in the 1980s, however, have caused the Kremlin to rethink its relationships with its Eastern European “satallies”— half satellites, half allies. Moscow faces dilemmas in areas such as energy, agriculture, the Eastern European states' relations with the West, economic reforms occurring in Eastern Europe, and integration within COMECON. How Moscow resolves these dilemmas lies at the core of its future relationships with Eastern Europe. Other important factors include the lessons learned from Poland, East Germany's evolving relationship with the Federal Republic of Germany, and China's growing economic and political initiatives vis-à-vis Eastern Europe.

The Orlov tribunal

1977 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Alexeyeva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Expert Witnesses ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Defence Lawyer ◽  
Selection Of

On 12 May, 1976, Professor Yuri Orlov, a Soviet physicist, founded a Group to Promote the Observance of the Helsinki Agreements in the USSR. This was the first of many such similar groups in Eastern Europe and had nine members to begin with. On the day of its foundation, Professor Orlov was warned by representatives of the KGB that his action was unconstitutional and illegal, but no evidence was offered to support this accusation. In the course of the following year the Group issued 19 major reports on violations of the Helsinki Accord in the Soviet Union, and on 10 February, 1977, Professor Orlov was arrested on unspecified charges. In May 1977, Professor Orlov's wife retained the English barrister, Mr John Macdonald, to act as her husband's defence lawyer, but Macdonald was refused a visa to enter the Soviet Union. He then hit upon the idea of conducting his case for the defence of Orlov in the form of a special tribunal, at which evidence was heard from several dozen expert witnesses, including some former members of the Helsinki Group now in the West. The tribunal was held at the Institute of Physics in Belgrave Square, London, on Monday 13 June, and the evidence subsequently transcribed and submitted to the Soviet courts for consideration. What follows here is a condensed selection of some of the testimony that was offered.

The Religious Cold War

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianne Kirby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Developing World ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter, which examines the place of religion during the Cold War years, suggests that there were conflicting attitudes toward religion in both the United States and the Soviet Union. It explains that Protestant suspicion of the Vatican complicated U.S.–Vatican relations while church leaders within the Soviet bloc were divided between those who advocated cooperation and those who preferred resistance and active opposition. The chapter also contends that religion provided the United States with a stick with which to beat the new communist regimes, and argues that the so-called religious Cold War influenced religion in the West and the developing world in a variety of ways.

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