| Nikita
Posted: 11/1/2009 7:33:16 AM | Just who does and who does not qualify for 'hero" status is a matter that has come to the forefront of public discussion as of late. My observation is that this notion exploded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when so many of the ultimate victims where among the New York City police and fire departments, exposing qualities among these people most seemed to merely assume with a degree of indifference. Their heroism was highlighted by tragedy, but it's existence was there long before 9/11.
I doubt there are many who ever even considered giving hero status to one Nikita Khrushchev, yes, the same man seen in the video banging his shoe on the table at the U.N., or proclaiming the ultimate triumph of Communism with the chilling "We will bury you". It was that time in our history when for so many of us, the catastrophic horror of WWII had been somehow parlayed with the advent of new weapons. Weaons powerful enough to destroy civilizations virtually overnight.
Recent history had set a unfortunate pattern of a major war erupting every twenty years or so. World War I had ended in 1918, World War II began in earnest, in 1939. Add twenty years to the end of World war II, and it brings us to the mid 60's. Maybe this would be the end.
World war I was fought largely due to the stubbornness and nationalistic passion that existed among leaders and governments. In the Kremlin and the Pentagon, these same elements were at play. There was sentiment in Moscow that if a war with the Americans is inevitable, the sooner the better. And in Washington, many had come to the same conclusion, in a sort of mirror image of power.
Them came the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis, which we now know brought us as close to a nuclear doomsday as we have ever been. There was sentiment supporting a "launch now" approach among both sides. Just as in World War I, there were lines drawn in the sand, and we all waited and hoped for someone to blink....someone to blink, and in essence save humanity from committing suicide.
Friends, that person was Nikita Khrushchev. Doing so so eroded his position among his peers, that it assured his downfall. Before long, he was no longer leader of his nation, discredited and demoted to the point of insignificance.
One wonders if the horrors he had witnessed on the Eastern Front and in what may have been History's most pivot-able and climatic event ever, The Battle of Stalingrad. For here to it can be argues that as political commissar to Stalin himself, Mr. Khrushchev , he played a major role in instituting a "line in the sand" approach that was not amendable. Had Stalingrad been ceded to the Nazi Germany, World War II may very well have had a much different outcome. However unintentionally, and for whatever his motives were, it occurs to me that this man, who is pretty much scorned by all, may just have saved civilization, not once...but twice. | |
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