quinta-feira, novembro 20, 2003
Robert Pipes
Um artigo da Tech Central Station relembra Robert Pipes a propósito da recente publicação da sua autobiografia:
In the early 1980s, Pipes worked in the Reagan administration, heading the East European and Soviet desk of the National Security Council. As such, he pushed for a hard line toward the Soviets, arguing that U.S. pressure could induce changes in the Communist system. This flew in the face of conventional analysis, and received considerable vindication in the years up to and through the Soviet Union's collapse.
(...)
Pipes wrote prolifically and traveled widely. He formed contacts with Russian dissidents, and was observed keenly by Soviet intelligence organs. At Harvard, he watched the campus unrest of the 1960s with revulsion. He found himself at odds with "revisionist" historians who used Marxist methodology and viewed the Soviets sympathetically. Visiting China in the late 1970s, Pipes met Communist officials who worried that the US was too weak in its policies toward the USSR
(...)
He seems to have relatively little affinity for science and technology, a disposition not uncommon among conservative intellectuals. It would be interesting to know what role he thinks technology (including not just missile defense but everyday gadgets like copiers and fax machines) played in the Soviet Union's downfall. Pipes is correct, though, in criticizing the naïveté displayed by some scientists (such as those who wrote for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) regarding Soviet behavior during the Cold War.
The current struggles on the world scene are touched upon only glancingly in Vixi [o título da autobiografia]. Pipes observes that European, particularly German and French, resistance to U.S. efforts to counter the Soviet Union foreshadowed similar resistance to U.S. efforts against terrorism. Noting that many Polish Jews under German occupation failed initially to grasp the depth of Nazi hatred, Pipes thinks many Israelis were similarly deluded about Palestinian enmity in recent years.
posted by Miguel Noronha 10:05 da manhã
Comments:
Enviar um comentário
