The Russians are coming!
The Russians are coming!

Right or wrong, Americans have been obsessed with Russia as ‘the adversary” for all of my adult life, and then some. In that spirit, I offer a few actual facts.

• Did you know, in 1944 during the Dewey-Roosevelt Presidential election, Dewy rang on the platform that said he would rid America of the “menace of communism” trying to seize control of the Federal Government allowed under Roosevelt’s rule. Dewey lost the electoral vote 432-99, the largest defeat in history.

• Did you know from 1952-1957 Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy created “the Red Scare” by trying (in vain) to identify communists and other left-wing loyalty risks in Hollywood? His movement and his delirium eventually crashed and burned as America rejected and prospered.

Russian officers being briefed on state-of-the-art war technology they are being given.

• As most people know, during the height of the Cold War Americans built bomb shelters and stored massive amounts of food in anticipation. But did you know the Russians did the same, believing America would “first-strike” Moscow and St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) with a deadly stream of missiles.

• Did you know that 35% of the most popular movies of all time depict all Russians as spies, and power-hungry deviates?

• Did you know, the CEO of America’s leading TV network welcomed the 2016 season with the pronouncement that rating would exceed expectations because for the first time in a while “we will be airing more Russians as villains and spies.” Further, he said, American TV audiences have always found Russians to be the foe they love to hate.”

• Did you know when I first visited Russia in 2009, I went to Mulkowsky Airbase about 40 kilometers from Moscow? There, I was greeted by machine gun wielding guards and at gates covered in barbed wire. When I asked who they were prepared for, the Colonel in charge said, ‘the inevitable incursion by your Americans.”

Russian and American pilots practice on the use of the then top-secret Norden bombsight installed on the 185 massive warplanes Americans built in Philadelphia for use by Soviet Air Force.

On my latest book, Project Zebra, the message is clear and simple. There was once a time where Russians and Americans spent meaningful time together to learn about the other was they worked toward a common enemy (Hitler). They succeed in learned to understand, to respect, to trust. Some even became lifelong friends.

U.S. Navy Lt. Gregory Gagarin (an MIT graduate) surrounded by Russian officers on a hill in North Carolina as he explained the American political system…in Russian.

• And, so today as CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post and numerous Russian Collusion Committees spend massive amounts of resources, focus and dollars to prove what Dewey, McCarthy et al couldn’t, we should ask ourselves, “Haven’t we seen this movie before?”

• Finally, would our collective efforts to work together make the world a better, safer place? And, if you think not, maybe you should consider the possibility that “The Russians are Not Coming; The Russians are Not Coming.”

Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Only known picture in history of Russian officers saluting an American flag in America on V-Day.