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Twice a day we are warned of the Russian peril.
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we → publish → peril
But three times a day we are told we have no money to spend on extra defences.
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we → tell → defences
Whatever shall we do?
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we → do → Whatever
No wonder some people, like my colleague Clare Foges, are building survival bunkers, stocked with prunes (ugh!) and kidney beans so that they can at least get through the first few weeks of Armageddon.
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they → build → Armageddon
But what then? Personally, I am not doing that.
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I → do → that
In my young years, which included the fabled Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the idea of stockpiling prunes or anything else never occurred to my parents, who had been through the actual war of 1939-1945.
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who → include → 1939
Their view was closer to that of the great satirist Tom Lehrer, who wrote a song called We’ll All Go Together When We Go, pointing out the benefits of universal simultaneous incineration.
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We → write → incineration
But few of us really believed the sirens would ever go off.
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sirens → believe → us
That’s the point.
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That → ’ → ?
Mutually Assured Destruction was good.
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Destruction → assure → ?
We didn’t have to commit mass suicide if we kept our head.
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we → have → head
These days, North Korea, Pakistan and Israel have the bomb, and I’m fairly sure Saudi Arabia will be next.
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Arabia → have → bomb
So nothing is assured at all.
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nothing → assure → ?
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan talk during their meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland
How I long for the real Cold War to come back.
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War → talk → Reykjavik
Now I suspect we never will be any of these things again.
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we → suspect → things
This week it is 40 years since I dashed to Iceland for a strange, sudden and fateful summit, between then US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
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I → dash → Reagan
Gorbachev’s giant Zil limousine was too big for the garage of the Soviet embassy in Reykjavik, and stuck out into the road.
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limousine → stick → road
The two men met, amid incessant howling wind, in a house that looked like the home of Norman Bates in Psycho.
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that → meet → Psycho
I remember swimming across a volcanically heated pool to get close to Gorbachev’s attractive wife Raisa.
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I → remember → wife
She fascinated the world, as she was so unlike the potato-shaped spouses of traditional Kremlin leaders.
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she → fascinate → leaders
My mission was to discover if she really spoke English, as claimed.
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she → discover → English
She didn’t.
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She → do → ?
In those days I was the defence and diplomatic correspondent of another newspaper, and had an enjoyable time flying in Harrier jump-jets, drinking red wine in a Polaris nuclear missile submarine, visiting our tank regiments on the North German plain and being winched on and off anti-submarine Royal Navy frigates.
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I → have → frigates
The country felt well-defended by competent, cheerful men.
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country → feel → men
It seemed reasonably prosperous and very, very free.
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It → seem → ?
I remember swimming across a volcanically heated pool to get close to Mr Gorbachev’s attractive wife Raisa, writes Peter Hitchens
Political correctness was virtually unknown.
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correctness → remember → wife
Tyranny was safely contained in the lands to the east of the bitter fences that cut across the middle of Europe.
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that → contain → Europe
Well, it had to start somewhere.
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it → have → ?
Then, amid the mighty gales of Reykjavik, rumours began to circulate that the two superpower leaders had come close to getting rid of all nuclear weapons – including ours, whether we liked it or not.
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we → begin → it
I felt a twinge of panic.
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I → feel → panic
Was this pleasant, stable, well-guarded world about to come to an end?
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world → guard → end
And then, phew! – the talks collapsed.
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talks → collapse → ?
Reagan wanted to go into history as a peacemaker.
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Reagan → want → peacemaker
He looked livid as the meeting ended.
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meeting → look → ?
Gorbachev was just sunk in gloom.
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Gorbachev → sink → gloom
I was delighted, so much so that the great Jon Snow, then toiling for Independent Television News, snapped at me: ‘Hitchens, why are you such a Hitlerite?’
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you → toil → me
He, like most Lefties, regarded a belief in strong defence as a form of Nazism.
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He → regard → Nazism
The Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, said incorrectly that Russian aircraft go ‘well into our airspace’
We were on the plane back from Iceland at the time and almost all the diplomatic correspondents were in the ‘Give Peace a Chance’ camp.
But my solitary joy did not last long.
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joy → say → camp
Just before Christmas 1987, I watched the two men sign a treaty in Washington DC which really did finish the Cold War.
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which → watch → War
Lots of countries did well out of that.
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Lots → do → that
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
