Cold War

It was a very unusual inaugural address because, of course, he had been reelected, and he spoke, he devoted the entirety of it to talking about how America's purpose in the world was to go plant a flag for freedom.

You all talked about in the post-Cold War era with Fukuyama saying history was over.

George W. Bush was saying it's not over, and the fight must continue to liberalize the world.

And agree with it or vehemently disagree with it, Bush had this deeply held personal view that the United States in the wake of 9/11, to prevent another attack, needed to go on a quest to use all elements of national power to try to liberalize the illiberal parts of the world as a way to proactively keep the fights overseas and prevent a 9/11 from happening.

Nations would be rebuilt and democratized in the Middle East to stop evil from triumphing.

Now, if US foreign policy was largely shaped, even dominated by the Cold War between 1947 and the fall of Berlin in 1989, so it's been consumed since 2001 by the war on terror, and that's the real significance of 9/11.

The terrorists didn't just hijack airlines that day.

They hijacked US foreign policy.

You know, I, I would frame this as, um, maybe kind of three acts of, of the alliance, and we are now well into the third act.

So the first was the post, uh, World War II, Cold War era alliance represented by the, the military basing agreement, which expired in nineteen ninety-two, and the MDT, which was basically the U.S. using the Philippines as a, as a staging area both for counter-Soviet operations and for the war in Vietnam.

You know, phase two, after kind of a ten-year hiatus, was the counter-terror mission that, I mean, really kind of had its root in the nineteen ninety-seven Visiting Forces Agreement, but took off with Operation Enduring Freedom Philippines after nine eleven.

And that wholly dominated at least the security relationship during the Bush administration and the start of the Obama's administration.

And that's been a little slower to eventuate since the Obama administration, but has seen remarkable progress since, I think particularly the fall of twenty twenty-one when, uh, the two sides issued what was called the Joint Vision Statement for a twenty-first century partnership.

And in the space of about three years, uh, built up all of these new institutions, um, information sharing agreements, uh, expansion of, of basing agreements, huge increase in U.S., uh, funding, uh, foreign military funding for the Philippines that has created the structure.

It's basically a, a mirror of the structures that you see in all the other post-Cold War U.S. alliances that have survived.

Hmm.

Yeah, I've been out there dozens of times.

But, uh, that, with the help of Darwin Morgan in that stretch of time there, it was amazing just to be able to see it, where, where history was made, where the Cold War was won.

All the lives that were put into creating those tunnels, and the weapons system that hopefully, hoping, hopefully we will never have to use.

But, uh, it was amazing to see it.

Right

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the, the nuclear tests that they were doing during the Cold War here in Nevada, and blowing things up, like that forest.

Those trees were in, were brought in from Mount Charleston, cut down and then put into concrete.

By Paul Sonne, Jim Tankersley, and Christopher F. Schuetze.

As relations between Moscow and Berlin reached their lowest point since the Cold War, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia stood before reporters last week and ripped into his German counterpart, Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"He lacks the trust of his citizens," Mr. Putin said, "and the reason is clear.

He does not defend national interests, but trades them away." It was a well-known argument to Germans because it is also a favorite talking point of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and of the Russian-friendly supporters who propelled the party to a blowout victory in elections on Sunday in the state of Saxony Anhalt.

That's especially the case in the Arctic, he said.

Concerns of Russian prowess, advancing missile technology, and possible regional interest from China have helped push the federal government to prioritize military buildup across the north, with multi-billion dollar plans to build supply hubs, increase the number of stationed troops, and replace aging Cold War-era radar.

Our priority theater is 100% Canada, said Rutland.

Right now there's a group of folks from the Canadian Joint Operations Command that are looking at the defense of Canada and are writing such a plan, he added.

register the motive again with this.

So this was at the beginning of the Cold War.

as well, right on the early days of it.

The military didn't need to believe in extraterrestrials or anything like that to take unidentified aircraft seriously.

I mean, you think about it, like I, I, I mentioned in my speech that, you know, the fall of the Berlin Wall, everyone said, "The world's changing.

Like, the Cold War's over.

Everything is much better now." Then you had the release of Nelson Mandela.

Then you had the peace process here, the ceasefires in 1994, and then the Good Friday Agreement in '98.

By Paul Sona, Jim Tankersley, and Christopher F. Schutze.

As relations between Moscow and Berlin reached their lowest point since the Cold War, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia stood before reporters last week and ripped into his German counterpart, Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

He lacks the trust of his citizens, Mr. Putin said, and the reason is clear.

He does not defend national interests, but trades them away.