"I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia. Apparently that is in reaction to the Czech's agreement with us concerning missile defense, and again some of the Russian now announcement they are now retargeting new targets, something they abandoned at the end of the Cold War, is also a concern." John McCain, speaking on July 14, 2008.
PRESS RELEASE
for immediate distribution
for immediate distribution
From: John McCain for President Committee
Re: Confronting the Soviet Union
Date: July 15, 2008
My friends, I want to expand and amplify some of my comments yesterday about the aggressive moves taken by the Soviet Union against some of its satellite states in the Warsaw Pact, including Czechoslovakia. The promise of the Prague Spring is now in jeopardy, and what I fear most of all is a domino effect where the democratic movements in these countries behind the Iron Curtain are nipped in the bud.
For these reasons, I have launched a new initiative to make sure that East Germany does not also come under the crushing heel of a Soviet crackdown. Planes will fly around the clock into the American Zone in West Berlin, bringing natural gas, coal and food to this island of democracy so that the Russians do not succeed in their plan to starve the West Berliners into submission. I will call this program the "Berlin Airlift" and it will continue until we win, for unlike my opponent, I know how to win wars, and this war is no exception.
We should take heart from the example set by President Tito in Yugoslavia. He has continued his brave stance of open defiance of the Soviet colossus and has held his country together, with all its different ethnic groups and religions, united in their belief that the tyranny of the U.S.S.R. must be resisted.
Premier Kruschev may believe that there are those in the West that he can bury simply by a display of force, as he has done recently with his targeting of cities in Czechoslovakia, a nation straining to resist fracturing along ethnic lines and to maintain cohesion through all its historic ups and downs. As President, I would summon the Soviet envoy Andrei Gromyko to the White House and make it plain to him that thermonuclear war is not a one-way street, and that our B-52s, circling at or near their fail-safe points, simply await the go-code to even the score.
There are those who will say, and I can probably include my opponent in their number, that this bold statement of America's strength is warmongering and out-of-date in an interconnected world. Yet I know I will have the full support of my Secretary of War and of the combined strength of the League of Nations in making clear to the Russian Bear that they cannot tread on us.
My friends, calls to action such as "Remember the Maine!" and "54-40 or Fight!" are not, to me, just empty slogans; they are recent news releases, as current in their relevance as our need, finally, to break the back of Japanese resistance by an assault on Okinawa in our pursuit of final victory.
Re: Confronting the Soviet Union
Date: July 15, 2008
My friends, I want to expand and amplify some of my comments yesterday about the aggressive moves taken by the Soviet Union against some of its satellite states in the Warsaw Pact, including Czechoslovakia. The promise of the Prague Spring is now in jeopardy, and what I fear most of all is a domino effect where the democratic movements in these countries behind the Iron Curtain are nipped in the bud.
For these reasons, I have launched a new initiative to make sure that East Germany does not also come under the crushing heel of a Soviet crackdown. Planes will fly around the clock into the American Zone in West Berlin, bringing natural gas, coal and food to this island of democracy so that the Russians do not succeed in their plan to starve the West Berliners into submission. I will call this program the "Berlin Airlift" and it will continue until we win, for unlike my opponent, I know how to win wars, and this war is no exception.
We should take heart from the example set by President Tito in Yugoslavia. He has continued his brave stance of open defiance of the Soviet colossus and has held his country together, with all its different ethnic groups and religions, united in their belief that the tyranny of the U.S.S.R. must be resisted.
Premier Kruschev may believe that there are those in the West that he can bury simply by a display of force, as he has done recently with his targeting of cities in Czechoslovakia, a nation straining to resist fracturing along ethnic lines and to maintain cohesion through all its historic ups and downs. As President, I would summon the Soviet envoy Andrei Gromyko to the White House and make it plain to him that thermonuclear war is not a one-way street, and that our B-52s, circling at or near their fail-safe points, simply await the go-code to even the score.
There are those who will say, and I can probably include my opponent in their number, that this bold statement of America's strength is warmongering and out-of-date in an interconnected world. Yet I know I will have the full support of my Secretary of War and of the combined strength of the League of Nations in making clear to the Russian Bear that they cannot tread on us.
My friends, calls to action such as "Remember the Maine!" and "54-40 or Fight!" are not, to me, just empty slogans; they are recent news releases, as current in their relevance as our need, finally, to break the back of Japanese resistance by an assault on Okinawa in our pursuit of final victory.
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