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From: michaelm@3comvax.UUCP (Michael McNeil)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: "We will bury you." -Khruschev
Message-ID: <290@3comvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Nov-85 15:59:20 EST
Article-I.D.: 3comvax.290
Posted: Tue Nov 26 15:59:20 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Nov-85 01:16:34 EST
References: <252@gargoyle.UUCP>
Organization: 3Com Corp; Mountain View, CA
Lines: 38

> 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

We also have to be careful with what *we* say, and how we say it.  
Physicist Freeman Dyson, in his recent book *Weapons and Hope*,
points out that the word "deterrence," used so frequently in arms
discussions in the West, translates in Russian as "intimidation."  
It's little wonder, given the Russians' paranoid proclivities,
that they respond coolly to talk of "intimidation" by the West.  

-- 

Michael McNeil
3Com Corporation     "All disclaimers including this one apply"
(415) 960-9367
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