Cheeky Monkey`s knowledge of Russian culture and history is limited.  In 1964, I came of age after seeing the movie, Dr. Zhivago (still one of my all time favorites)!  Later, it took me over four months to read Tolstoy`s War and Peace,.  Great novel, good love story and riveting battle scenes.  Saw James Bond in From Russia With Love, and  the excellent flick, Nicolas and Alexandra  (also read the book).  Cue the Beatle music:  "Back in the USSR!, Don`t know how lucky we are ...."    

So back in the USA of 1956, I was a little girl in the first grade.  There were frequent air raid drills in school, the fire alarm would go off and we would all dive under our desks.  Nikita Khrushchev was the President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).  He took off his shoe and in the true Bolschevic manner, pounded the table with it in a most delusional tantrum.  He was protesting a pro-Western speech by UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at the United Nations.  (Macmillan, in the fine tradition of British wit and dry humor remarked at the time, "I shall have to have that translated.")  

The Cold War continued to escalate.  No doubt many of the brave, grizzled and war-weary WWII heroes (like my own dad, a Navy diver) argued that Ike should have sent Patton into Russia to finish the job once and for all!  Then on May 1, 1960, the pilot of a U-2 spyplane, Francis Gary Powers, was shot down by a Soviet rocket.  Unfortunately, for President Eisenhower, a summit was scheduled with Khrushchev in Paris just two weeks later.  Their meeting did not go well.  The Cold War got colder.  (Captain Powers was released after two years in captivity.   He was scorned by the Intelligence Community and by some in the Military for not blowing up the U-2 on its way down and for not swallowing the handy-dandy, super cyanide pill to take himself out.  Captain Powers died in a helicopter crash fighting a California forest fire in 1977.  RIP, Captain Powers!)

In 1960, that era`s version of hope and change, John F. Kennedy was elected as the 35th President of our great Union (with the generous help of his former bootlegger daddy in Chicago and especially, West Virginia!  No wonder Sheets Byrd is on the record for clean coal!).  JFK soon found himself up to his neck in the Cold War of rhetoric and diplomatic speak with the Commie pinko bears, headed up by Nikita K.  Kennedy met with Krushchev in Vienna in June of 1961 and he openly admitted to his own fawning media he had been soundly out manuevered by the old bear.  Two months later, the Berlin Wall was constructed by the Soviets in full view and with no protests coming out of  Washington, DC.  In October 1962, photographs taken over Cuba by U-2 spyplanes and Navy low-level reconnaissance aircraft showed Soviet missiles and anti-aircraft installations on the island.   The entire world was on edge for those twelve dark days as the Cuban missile crisis was the closest we have ever come to nuclear war.  A US Naval blockade was put into place and the Soviet ships turned away.  That was the beginning of the Cuban embargo, which exists to this day.

"Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!"  Thank you, President Ronald Reagan, for making such a strong statement for Democracy and Freedom while you stood in front of that monstrous barrier!  The wall finally did come tumbling down in November 1989, and millions of people are still embracing freedom and democracy.  The USSR was declared bankrupt and dissolved.   The Cold War was finally over!

Fast forward 20 years.  Enter barack hussein amabO, elected prez in the new era of hopenchange, 2008 version.  Where to begin?  Before wheels up to Moscow, ready to attempt another risky high dive into the deep end of the international foreign policy pool and to mend the hurt feelings of the past, prez started out by first insulting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  prez chortled that Vlad still has one foot in the old Cold War era and the other foot in the now.  The outcome proves prez was soundly mistaken.  prez gave up at least one third of our nuclear weapons and sold out without a second thought the Polish/Czech Missile Defense System.  So much for standing up for our allies and honoring our commitments to them!!  He did thank Russia for the great deal they gave us on Alaska!  How well did that go over?  In his meeting with the Vlad for breakfast, prez was held captive to Putin`s lengthy soliquoly on the history and glories of the Cold War.  prez later complained that Putin was so loquacious, he had had no time to discuss what  was on his own agenda!  (Iran, Iran, Iran?)  So, after all this diplomacy at the highest levels, what did prezboy get for his magnanimous gestures of silence and aquiessence?   Permission to fly over Russian airspace to deliver supplies for our troops in Afghanistan and a renewed promise for the Ruskies to start importing US beef again.  (The Soviets fought their own war with Afghanistan in the 80s and retreated.  They see the US in a war with the Taliban that cannot be won.  They have other strategic interests and are patiently waiting for the outcome.)   This trip to Russia was just another glad handing, happy boondoggle for prezbo`s next autobiography.  Not one to stick around for diplomacy purposes after selling the plantation, giving away the farm or even good manners, prezbo had dinner with his family in an exclusive restaurant.  Once again, as he did in Prague and Paris, the prez dissed his Russian hosts` sincere offer of hospitality.