Jeremy Kuzmarov: The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce
Geopolitics & Empire
Geopolitics & Empire
4.2 ā¢ 570 Ratings
šļø 18 October 2018
ā±ļø 40 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Academic and author Jeremy Kuzmarov discusses his latest book “The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce.” Topics covered include the true origins of the Cold War, how a Henry Wallace presidency could’ve altered the course of history, the Military-Industrial-Academic-Complex, the use of propaganda against Russia in the New Cold War, NATO expansion, color revolutions, and how the Democratic left is perpetuating McCarthyism in the age of Trump.
Websites
Books
https://www.amazon.com/Russians-Are-Coming-Again-Tragedy/dp/1583676945
About the Guest
Jeremy Kuzmarov has taught at numerous universities and colleges in the field of U.S. history and foreign relations. HeĀ has undertaken extensive specialized research on the following topics:
āĀ Covert dimensions of U.S. foreign policy
āĀ The War on Drugs
āĀ U.S. policing and prisonsĀ and the internationalization of U.S. criminal justice
āĀ U.S. airpower and its human cost
āĀ American military base networks
āĀ The false manipulations of the public in selling American wars, among other topics.
KuzmarovĀ has contributedĀ to manyĀ progressiveĀ publications like The Progressive Magazine, Counterpunch, the LA Progressive, the Huffington Post, Z Magazine, Z Net and has appeared in various media outlets, including on radio and television programs.Ā HeĀ is also a contributor to a peace website, developed by historian Roger Peace, that provides comprehensive overviews of major U.S. wars and assesses them from a just war perspective.Ā Kuzmarov has been active in local peace groups, and is a board member of the Tulsa Peace fellowship, a friend of the Asia-Pacific Journal,Ā and on the Steering committee for Historians for Peace and Democracy. He is also part of a network, headquartered at the University of Exeter,Ā that studies colonial history and counterinsurgencies in comparative perspective.
*Podcast intro music is from the song “The Queens Jig” by “Musicke & Mirth” from their album “Music for Two Lyra Viols”: http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Our guest on this edition of the Geopolitics and Empire podcast is Professor Jeremy Kuzmarov. |
| 0:06.0 | He is a lecturer at Tulsa Community College and the author of the recently published, |
| 0:11.0 | The Russians are coming again. |
| 0:13.0 | The first Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farse. |
| 0:17.0 | We'll be talking about the book and his take on the new Cold War in US foreign policy. |
| 0:21.7 | Thanks for joining us, Dr. Kuzmarov. |
| 0:24.5 | Thank you. |
| 0:25.5 | Thanks for inviting me. |
| 0:26.5 | It's a pleasure and honor. |
| 0:28.3 | Now let's start first with the historical context, which part of your book is dedicated |
| 0:33.2 | to, which you call the true origins of the Cold War. |
| 0:37.1 | You describe U.S. foreign interventions into Tsarist and Soviet Russia, which have been kind of swept under the rug. |
| 0:44.3 | And could you tell us what is wrong with the current American history as we know it, |
| 0:50.3 | and how that not only distorts our current view on the new Cold War, but actually escalates the danger of the new Cold War, turning hot, as you say. |
| 1:00.0 | Well, that's a great question. I think the problem with conventional understanding is that in American society and culture, we're kind of reared to believe that the Russians are menacing |
| 1:13.6 | force. |
| 1:14.6 | And, you know, the history of the Cold War is often presented as a case where the United States |
| 1:20.6 | was kind of victimized by Stalinist aggression and was more kind of innocent party that was reactive to the Soviet Union and the alleged monstrosity that was the Soviet Union. |
| 1:35.3 | But if we look at, you know, if we probe more deeply and realistically into the history, we find that the United States really triggered the Cold War through its intervention in the Russian Revolution in 1917, when it was support and the Russian Civil War, when the Woodrow Wilson administration, in alliance with various other Western nations, including Canada and also Japan, intervened to support white counter-revolutionary elements who were |
| 2:04.0 | trying to destroy the Bolshevik revolution. |
| 2:07.3 | And from the beginning, the United States and many European countries couldn't tolerate |
| 2:12.3 | an alternative system to capitalism. |
... |
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