Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site gargoyle.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes
From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: "We will bury you." -Khruschev
Message-ID: <252@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Nov-85 11:25:22 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.252
Posted: Wed Nov 20 11:25:22 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Nov-85 21:21:51 EST
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 23

In article <454@persci.UUCP> bill@persci.UUCP (William Swan) writes:
>
>Funny, but even at the time *all* the press quoted Khruschev as saying
>"We will bury you!", with much emphasis on burial. Nary a word on "survive".
>What is your source for this apparently liberal interpretation of yours?

The Russian language, in which Khrushchev was speaking.  He used a
proverbial expression meaning "we will outlive you," which is
standard Soviet dogma:  capitalism will die from its internal
contradictions and the proletarian revolution, and communism will
reign supreme.  It is as if the Soviet press, noting that Dave
Stockman had been taken "to the woodshed" by Reagan and that Carter
threatened to "whip Kennedy's ass," claimed that public figures were
punished by flogging in the US.  There is enough to dislike about the
Soviets without projecting one's paranoid fears and making them into
monsters bent on destroying the US by force.  

This is worth remembering in the context of the Geneva summit and
arms negotiations.  We ought to be careful to interpret correctly
what the other side is saying, rather than reading our preconceptions
into their words.
-- 
Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes