It is generally accepted in Washington that the Cold War is over, and that the West won. Personally, I think a better assessment is that humankind won. However, the point I want to make is that the energy that went into fighting the Cold War was huge on both sides. It was ultimately a cost that the Soviet Union could not continue to carry, and exhausted itself in the attempt. The economic burden of sustaining an empire and maintaining a huge military establishment was crushing. As William G. Hyland and other close observers of the world scene have observed, the Soviet system failed because it was inherently and fatally flawed. Its political philosophy was oppressive and supported a rigid hierarchy. Its economic system was inefficient and suppressed incentives to perform at anywhere close to normal potential. The Communist Party in the Soviet Union was mirrored in Eastern Europe. The system had become thoroughly corrupt. Communist leadership had degenerated into a venal, arrogant oligarchy, living like oriental potentates while their own people were desperate. However, if the system had been efficient, the Cold War would either still be going on, or the West would have lost. There was no lack of intent to defeat the West.
What does this have to do with UFO phenomena? I am suggesting that in both the Soviet Union and the United States, decisions were made to place on hold any effort to respond to UFO phenomena while the Cold War was raging, and its outcome unsure.
I assume that throughout the period of the Cold War, both countries were experiencing similar UFO phenomena, and very likely their assessments and responses were also similar.
An argument can be made that due to cultural differences, the Soviet and U.S. responses to the same UFO phenomena would be different, not similar. I would agree that there would be some differences, but suggest that there would be more similarities than differences, and absolutely no differences in the area of vital national interests. Most of us remember Winston Churchill's elegant and famous phrase that described the Russian as "a riddle wrapped in an enigma;" but the second half of his statement is usually overlooked. Churchill added that the secret to the riddle was the Russian national interest. The primal national interest of all countries is to survive as a national entity, i.e., the protection of their existing territory, and the preservation of their prestige from a massive loss of face. These are interests in common with all nations, and the prestige issue on the subject of UFOs is a current one for the U.S. government.
In regard to observed UFO phenomena, I imagine during the Cold War that in both countries questions such as the following were raised:
At a conference in Moscow on the "Survival of Humanity," Gorbachev said:
"In our meeting in Geneva, the U.S. President said that if earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion. I shall not dispute the hypothesis, though I think it's early yet to worry about such an intrusion."By this time, the Cold War actually was over, and the leaders in Moscow knew that. My personal contacts in the Soviet scientific community had been telling me that this was the case and the scramble for personal survival was on. They could not predict if the pending revolution in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union would be bloody or not. I will leave this side bar of Cold War history, with some observations.
During a visit to Moscow, at the Institute of Theoretical Problems, I was informed by the director that a very senior scientist wanted to meet with me on an important subject. At the Institute we had been discussing its parapsychological and UFO research. I was informed that the scientist was a respected Hero of the Soviet Union, and was responsible for the huge phase array radar near Krasnoyarsk. That particular radar had been cited by the United States as a violation of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty. The Soviets had denied this and were going through extraordinary contortions to make their case. For thirty minutes I was lectured on the short-sightedness of the U.S. in trying to force the Soviets to dismantle the radar. The insistence was that it was a vital installation, and technically not in violation of the treaty. I countered by saying that I was not knowledgeable enough with details of the treaty to make a judgment whether or not there was merit to his argument, and observed that he obviously was not making a technical case to me, but simply asserting that the radar was important and needed. I conceded that the Soviet military and scientists would naturally feel that it was important, and be resentful that their diplomats had given it away. I asked what he wanted me to do about it. He requested me to carry his message to Senator Claiborne Pell, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I promised him that I would.
The broader issue was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the child of President Reagan, and the principal sticking point that Bush and Gorbachev had to negotiate away.
When I briefed Senator Pell and senior members of the Foreign Relations committee staff about the conversation I had in Moscow, it met nothing special to them. Looking back on that incident, it is obvious that I missed an opportunity in Moscow to question whether the importance of the radar site was related to UFO phenomena. I now suspect that it was, and that they made the assumption that Senator Pell would make the link. Alas, the Soviets did not know how compartmentalized UFO information is in the U.S. government, and that the Congress has not been determined to have a "need to know."
Except for a small number of unreconstructed Cold Warriors in the U.S. and Russia, the Cold War is over. That means that the energy and treasure previously dedicated to that issue has become available for other uses. However, don't spend too much time looking for the Cold War dividend. The nature of the bureaucratic beast assures that nothing will be refunded to the tax payer. Recently the Campaign for New Priorities (an organization I know nothing about) announced that the Clinton budget for Star Wars and related programs is still larger than the combined federal outlays for small business loans, Head Start, child immunization, mass transit, summer youth jobs and Pell educational grants. Such a statement doesn't mean much without the availability of actual figures. However, parts of Star Wars do survive. The question is why? The power of some Congressmen to keep military spending in their home districts is part of the answer. The known successes in developing various Star Wars technology is so marginal, that it is hard to believe that another answer is that a pending technological breakthrough justifies continuing R&D expenditures. The acknowledged value of Star Wars was its use as a bargaining chip in getting the Russians to agree actually to destroy missiles and nuclear warheads. Was there, is there another reason for Star Wars technology that is intended to address UFO phenomena? I don't know, but we must think about this because of the assumptions that drive such a consideration.
Reagan made two more public statements on the subject. In September 1987, in an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, he said:
"In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."