U Magazine, Summer 1989

symptom of the problem. We need to change the way we think about war and the earth. We need to create a mentality in which the idea of nuclear weapons is simply unacceptable," she says. The effervescent director and other MEND members plan to take their message of citizen diplomacy to groups - both here and abroad - who need to be convinced that the U.S. can co-exist peacefully with the Soviet Union. "I grew up in Ventura, California, which was and still is a very, very, conservative area," King relates. "And when I saw my family and friends in that area embracing the Soviets and the whole idea of the ex– change with open arms and minds, I thought to myself, " Glasnost isn't just in the Soviet Union, it's right here , it's hap-

Cold War Cease-Fire Provides Opportunities

But there were some strongly positive signs: peace movements in the U.S. and the decline of the Stalinist generation in the USSR. The slowing of the arms build-up in the mid- 1970s in the USSR, together with a similar slowing of the U.S. arms build-up in the mid- 1980s, gave an opportunity for serious arms control negotiations. And, crucially, both faced a changing international system in which the rise of China, Japan and a unified western Europe put pressures on each superpower. Now the Soviet leadership talks frequently about "new thinking" in international relations. We in the U.S. have a preoccupation with the Pacific Rim and Japanese management and have not yet done much new thinking about international relations. This asymmetry in orientation complicates U.S.-Soviet relations and calls out for methodical efforts to achieve a better balance. Greater cultural understanding between the two countries may not produce peace, but ignorance and neglect increase chances of misperception and miscalculation. We will need all the political and cultural resources we can muster to manage our relationships with the USSR in the coming decades. Sometime the hardest times will be - like today - when tensions are lowered; but out of tensi ns often arise key opportunities.

By Dr. Patrick Drinan

Vivid pictures of democratic rallies in China flood American living rooms, followed by brutal suppression of a basically peaceful revolt. In western Europe, General Secretary Gorbachev is considered the most popular leader in the world. In the United States, the Bush administration frets about Soviet willing– ness to negotiate arms agreements. Competi– tive elections in the USSR in the spring of 1989 capture the imagination of the Soviet people. And, in the U.S., citizens and reporters

contemplate the factors contributing to the re– election of 98 percent

of incumbents to Congress. Has the world gone topsy turvy?

There is no doubt that the Cold War is at a cease-fire, if not a conclusion. This has permitted Soviet positive attitudes about U.S. society to reemerge, as they have during each period of thaw over the last 70 years. Americans and Soviets have always found things to like about each other even during the midst of the most frigid days of the

1be Soviet visitors at the Kings' Pacific Beach home.

Cold War. The optimism and technology of U.S. society always has been attractive to the Soviets. And the literature and perserverance of the Russian and Soviet peoples have been attractive to us (not to mention the possibility of business deals). The durability of this mutual cultural fascination is not in question. Rather, the issues seem to be how can it be sustained, can it flourish, and will it have impacts on the national security calculations of each side? The most recent warming of U.S.-USSR relations is one of at least five in our common history. Cultural exchanges have been prominent in the post-Stalin years, but disputes over Jewish emigration blocked rapid advances in the early 1970s. This was rein– forced by political disputes in the late 1970s involving Angola, Ethiopia, Cambodia and Af– ghanistan. U.S.-Soviet relations were so poor by the early 1980s that many commentators saw little hope of another thaw.

pening right here. " As she thinks back on the past year, King credits USD Provost Sr. Sally Furay, RSC], with teaching her during her student days to use her talents to the fullest. "She made us realize that our talents and abilities were a gift, and it was our moral obligation to use those talents for the betterment of society," the Sacred Heart alumna remembers. "And I truly believe that I am obligated to leave a situation better than I found it. I operate according to that philosophy every day."

I

A Soviet youngster pauses beside the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Drinan, a professor ofpolitical science, will become dean ofthe College ofArts and Sciences in August.

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