Undoubtedly, there are mysterious elements (and I mean psychologically mysterious) to this persistent US belligerence towards Russia but I think the obvious eludes Mr. Lieven (whose work, I should hasten to add, I admire) because he cherishes a somewhat romantic view of the Cold War as a struggle between freedom loving pragmatists – willing to do what was necessary to preserve liberty – and the Soviet challenge to all that.
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Lieven is Irish-Latvian. LATVIAN. When I was in Riga a couple of years ago a guy who works for the Baltic Times told me there were some issues with Lieven family property that had been appropriated by the fascists and then the Soviets, IIRC.
Riga is a really nice town, marching SS vets or no. I note that the Latvian parliament has this year refused to allow the SS vets to stage their own march on a different day from the main military celebrations, instead folding them into the latter.
The Latvian
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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