there is also the little detail of how the US didn’t trust Easter Europeans to get on with running / changing their own countries. Aside from importing Dunkin Donuts the US also imported a political culture.
One of the pivotal moments of my youth was chatting to an eager young democrat in Manhattan ion Christopher Street Day in the summer of 1992. He told me that the year before he had been to Russia where he was campaigning for Yeltsin in an official capacity along with a substantial delegation from the US.
I was a visiting student in the US coming from Germany via Hungary and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
We experienced the fall of the Iron Curtain, we knew that people had risked their lives, their livelihood to fight for power to the people. What business did a suited-young-know-nothing have to meddle over there? He was so utterly clueless of Russia and Eastern Europe. Perfectly, nice but the arrogance of it. No one in New York would have considered, even for a second, listening to some 20 something from Moscow telling politicians how to run their business.
Colonie alright. This utter cultural ignorance leads to feeding the monster. Always. Hussein. Gaddafi. Yeltsin. Putin. Orban. All welcomed by the US for the promise of stability, for oil, of who knows what.
p.s. Friends of mine were founding members of Fidesz, back in the day when it was an opposition youth movement. Orban hijacked the party in the early 90s. It was clear from the start that he was bad news and every single one of those founding members left party while the West rejoiced in sidelining those enthusiastic young socialists.
