Homage to Ukraine

They need a bear hug from Boris Yeltsin.

Washington — Well, Moscow is in the news again. Vladimir Putin is irritated by the citizens of disobedient Ukraine. He is discarding his sporty demeanor for a more hostile style. He has not been seen for a long time in his spotless all-white martial arts uniform and is now all business, wearing a nicely tailored business suit. That should cause anxiety for his neighbors. Frankly, I preferred him in his martial-arts whites.
Back in the days of the Cold War, I was often asked — I being a renowned Cold War hawk — if I had ever visited Russia. No, I said because, remembering the plight of the brave Hungarians in 1956 and the brave Poles in the 1980 — I would only visit Moscow at the head of an American armor column. I had many run-ins with Russian Communists during those days, and frankly I hated Communists. People such as the famous dissident Vladimir Bukovsky stayed at my home and watched me drive KGB officers such as Vitaly Churkin out of their minds. I informed Vitali that when it came to anti-Semitism and police brutality Communist Russia compared very favorably with Hitler’s Germany, though the German uniforms were usually a better fit. Suddenly the TV screen went dark as Vitaly’s handlers at the Soviet Embassy across town yanked the plug.
But all my anti-Soviet bile dissipated in the 1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, and he agreed with President Ronald Reagan. There was no way to avoid bankrupting the Soviet Union other than to end the Cold War. Under President Gorbachev’s successor, Boris Yeltsin, my anti-Soviet ardor dissipated even more. In fact, President George H. W. Bush even invited me to the White House to participate at a dinner in President Yeltsin’s honor. I came not in an armored vehicle but in a taxi. I found President Yeltsin very engaging. As I recalled, some months before he had hopped down from a military tank in Moscow to rally the forces of the Russian Federation. Henry Kissinger called Boris a great man. Who was I to dissent?
Before ...