Dear CCI Friends,
Former US Ambassador to the Soviet Union Jack Matlock is a terrific resource on the history of US-Russia relations as they have progressed – or regressed – since 1991. His intimate knowledge of the causes and consequences of the dissolution of the Soviet Union contrasts sharply with the popular view promoted here – that “We Won! They Lost! We Rule!” Reality is subtler, more complicated and more interesting.
The article below gives us Ambassador Matlock’s bird’s eye view of the negotiations that brought the USSR to an end as well as his astute speculation on how misreading – or deliberately mischaracterizing – that process for the past thirty years has brought us to the brink of nuclear war.
I hope you appreciate it as I did – please let us know.
Sincerely,
Paula Day, Director
Center for Citizen Initiatives
“The Christmas Gift That Keeps on Giving”
February, 2024
By Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
On December 24, 1989, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Aboimov informed me on behalf of the Soviet government, ‘We have given the Brezhnev Doctrine to you with our compliments. Consider it a Christmas gift.”
Now, some thirty-four years later, I should explain what the Brezhnev Doctrine was, the circumstances under which the gift was conveyed, and why I believe that it was a gift that has infused US foreign policy to this very day.
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* Please note: ‘1979’ in the last sentence should be ‘1989.’ Correction by Ambassador Matlock.