Stardate 20010718.1123 (On Screen): I was born in 1953 and I grew up during the Cold War. I lived my life under the nuclear threat. When I was in first grade, we not only practiced fire drills, where we went out onto the playing field, but we also practiced air raid drills, where we went to the deepest part of the school and "ducked and covered". I just missed being involved in Viet Nam (I was one year too young). NATO was originally formed "to keep America in, Russia out, and Germany down." Russia formed its own alliance in response, the Warsaw Pact, and armies of the two alliances bristled at each other across the Iron Curtain my whole life. It was a very real barrier, too, and many people in Germany and elsewhere died trying to cross it. West Berlin was under siege for more than 40 years, defended by French and British and American soldiers, but even more by the threat of a nuclear exchange. And we all lived with the knowledge that we could be turned to vapor at any instant.
The Cold War was a fact of life as long as I had been alive, right up until I was 36, when the Iron Curtain fell, and USSR dissolved itself. Now Russia wants membership in NATO. Will wonders never cease? (discuss)
