In college and graduate school from 1965 until 1976, I and many other students learned a great deal about the origins of three worldwide struggles: the two world wars and the ongoing Cold War. Perhaps a dearth of that kind of learning is why no one is talking about the real historical parallel to the current crisis over Ukraine: the Berlin crisis of 1958-1962.
Western leaders and the press see Putin’s threats towards Ukraine the way they saw Nikita Khrushchev’s threats towards West Berlin: as a possible imminent territorial grab. In fact, Khrushchev did not want war or new territory, and Putin may not either. Putin, like Khrushchev, may be using a western military vulnerability for two purposes: to sow dissension in the western alliance and to force NATO to drop pretensions they see as a threat to their security. Läs artikel