Paul Craig Roberts

Dear Friends,

I am as tired of challenging and distressing news as you. Today there is a treat instead. The treat is “the Tall Texan,” the American pianist Van Cliburn playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto at the first Soviet international competition in Moscow in 1958, which Van Cliburn won. Khrushchev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, was present as was Mikoyan. You will see them applauding.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6qROema2MDI / Or use this LINK for phones.

After the performances, the judges approached Khrushchev, the ruling General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and asked if they might give the prize to Van Cliburn. Khrushchev asked the judges, “Was he the best?” The judges said, “yes.” “Then give him the prize.” The Soviet conductor could easily have ruined Van Cliburn’s performance, but he did not and the two went on together to make recordings. Today the sanctions would prevent both Van Cliburn’s performance and the subsequent recordings.

The cold war could have ended then, but Washington lacked the vision. The Soviet Audience poured flowers all over Van Cliburn. There were endless demands for encores. Van Cliburn, playing better than Russians the music of Russian composers, won their hearts.

The opportunity was lost. Washington thinking it had a monopoly on nuclear warhead delivery and conservatives fearful of the life of a dystopian novel being imposed on us by communism missed the opportunity. This was an extraordinary failure as it was Khrushchev who denounced Stalin for his crimes. A few years later it is Khrushchev who is working with President John F. Kennedy to peacefully resolve what is known as “The Cuban Missile Crisis” but just as well could be called the Turkish Missile Crisis. The Soviets moved missiles to Cuba because Washington had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey on the Soviet border.

The deal that resolved the crisis was that Khrushchev would remove the missiles from Cuba and six months later Kennedy would quietly remove them from Turkey. President Kennedy, it seems, understood that it was a life and death matter for him personally to make peace with an enemy that the military/security complex, which President Eisenhower had warned Americans about, needed for its power and profits. President Kennedy was insulted to his face by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for refusing the recommendation for a thermo-nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.

President Kennedy was assassinated for his peace efforts, and Khrushchev was removed from power by a Politburo suspicious of dealing with the enemy. This problem remains today. President Trump was investigated as a “Russian agent and conspirator” because he wanted to “normalize relations with Russia.” “National Security” stupidity will persist until it destroys the world.

Years later President Reagan wanting to end the Cold War, a project in which I was a participant, convinced Van Cliburn to come out of retirement and to play for Gorbachev in the White House. The symbolism was perfect. Gorbachev remembered the lost opportunity in 1958 and again with the resolution of the Cuban or Turkish Missile Crisis and grabbed at the chance so that it did not pass again.

Gorbachev should have made the deal quietly as Khrushchev and Kennedy did in the early 1960s. Jubilant over hope Gorbachev was too transparent in his dealings, and the Politburo concluded that Gorbachev was making too many concessions without adequate guarantees and placed the Russian President under house arrest. This is what led to the collapse of the Soviet government and the rise of Yeltsin, a Washington puppet, and the dismemberment of the Soviet Union by Washington.

President Reagan’s efforts and those of his predecessors to reduce tensions and to end the Cold War have been disavowed by US governments beginning with the Clinton regime. On false pretenses Washington has abandoned all the treaties and agreements that were the work of previous administrations.

Today Americans, especially conservative ones, have been propagandized to think that, after Putin conquers Ukraine, he will move on to the rest of Europe. “If we don’t stop him in Ukraine, we will have to stop him in Germany or France.”

This is the kind of ignorant nonsense that Brzezinski and Kissinger, for all their faults, would never have tolerated.

Brzezinski and Kissinger wanted to protect American power and influence, not create a world war and misunderstandings leading to difficult to resolve situations. They were not Zionist neoconservatives willing to sacrifice America for Greater Israel and domestic American needs for the war profits of the military/security complex, as American governments in the 21st century have been willing to do.

What we see in the world today is the absence of leaders. Perhaps Trump and Putin will rise to the challenge. But I have not an abundance of confidence.

What is missing in analysis of foreign affairs is the recognition of institutionalized interests whose power allows them to serve themselves. These powerful interests will constrain both Trump and Putin. It will be easier for things to go wrong than right.

Now having violated my promise of a treat by dumping distressing information on you, enjoy Van Cliburn playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which won the Moscow International Competition in 1958.

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A Treat
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/01/16/a-treat/