By Dele Sobowale
He who sets out on revenge must first dig two graves.” Chinese Proverb.
The Americans struck the first blow. The US Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, pulled a coup in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR – at the heart of which was Russia, by nurturing a CIA agent, Mikhail Gorbachev, 1931-2022, until he rose to become the President of the other super power.
“The USSR was a transcontinental country spanning much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 and was a successor to the Russian Empire.” ( Source: Wikipedia). Russia had annexed several independent nations around it to form the USSR after the end of the First World War, WWI to serve as buffers between it and the European powers.
However, it was not until after World War two, when Russia, a former ally of the Western Allied powers, overran and subjugated some eastern European countries – Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia etc – acquired the atomic weapon and became a communist country that it became the number one enemy of the United States and Western Europe. Successive USSR leaders, from Stalin to Kruschev to Andropov made it the mission of the nation to ensure global socialism. Capitalist America and Western Europe felt threatened by the sudden rise of Socialism as an alternative form of government. The Cold War was on.
“War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means.”
Global contest for dominance between the USSR and the West started in earnest. International politics and diplomacy quickly became a race to acquire allies among weaker nations, to fight battles through proxies, to attempt to undermine economies, install friendly regimes worldwide, but, above all, to place spies in the top echelons of the adversaries’ governments as well as other strategic positions.
With the two sides in possession of nuclear weapons; and after the horrors experienced when America dropped the bomb on Japan in 1945, direct war between them was completely ruled out. Cold war replaced hot conflict.
The CIA was the arrowhead of America’s intelligence infrastructure; while the KGB served that purpose for the USSR. Propaganda was a key weapon. Africa and most of the developing world, being former colonies of Britain, France, Spain and even the Dutch were easy preys for the West. They had taught us their languages; dominated our economies and imposed the leaders they thought they could trust when independence was granted to most former colonies in the 1960s. The USSR had to play catch-up; given the language barrier and the lack of a sure economic leverage.
The disadvantage persists till today; although, through persistent effort and determination the USSR managed to crawl in. One inducement they employed was to offer free university education to African students; who on return to their countries were the advance team for USSR espionage and sabotage in those countries.
Because, this is a one-off article and there is no intention to turn this page into one on foreign affairs, no attempt will be made to discuss at great length all the tricks employed by all the nations – especially the USA and the USSR – permit me to go fast forward to how Gorbachev emerged as President of the USSR and proceeded to dismantle the empire in 1991; and how Trump is now US President – now about to disband the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO.
TOP LEVEL TRAITORS
“Traitors in one’s midst, always highly trusted, always splendid fellows, always the last people to be suspected.” Agatha Christie, 1890-1976.
My full year course in Strategic Studies, during my final year, 1967-8, as an undergraduate, included a session, in which a former CIA agent, face covered, told the class how the Agency recruits and maintains spies in other countries – particularly declared adversaries like the USSR. Appointed officials, military officers and parliamentarians who might have access to security information were valued as assets to be developed. They start with three strong beliefs: the first that “every man has his price” and can be bought; and the second, that “few people can avoid temptation if it is strong enough”; and the third, “fear is a potent factor”. Lurking in the background is violence. Murder, arson, destruction, kidnapping, burglary are routine aspects of espionage work. Shedding blood is normal. But, the most potent weapon is seduction and subsequent blackmail.
A top military official or politician known to live above his legitimate income is soon recruited and offered money by “a new friend” – who turns out to be a secret agent – until he is hooked on spending money not legitimately earned. Then, the first request for classified information is made, then another, and another. When the recruit resists, he is threatened with exposure. The guy who cannot have enough sex is provided with all the babes he could bed and video recordings are made of each encounter. The closet homosexual is the easiest catch to turn into a traitor working against his own country.
The CIA or KGB hit the jackpot when they acquire a topmost government official. Not only are they provided with the topmost secrets of the other government; they can sometimes dictate what would be government policy and programme. When Gorbachev, in 1991, born in Russia by Georgian parents, embarked on allowing all the former nations gathered under the Soviet Union to determine whether to remain in the Union or go their separate ways, he not only knew the outcome in advance, but the measure was unprecedented in history. No absolute dictator has ever willingly dismantled his own empire. I remembered the words of our hooded CIA resource person. “The CIA is managing several assets in the USSR. One day, one of them will be Soviet leader and the country will disintegrate without a shot being fired.” End of USSR story.
AMERICA’S TURN
“How now a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!” William Shakespeare, 1564-1616.
The Russians, who constituted the core of the USSR, should have been forewarned when Gorbachev started seeking more peaceful relations with the West – especially America – and when his wife, Raisa, became a fashion pace setter in the US. The handshake was getting up to the elbow. The dictator suppressed all suspicion until 1991. Trump is taking measures that represent carbon copies of what Gorbachev did in the years leading to the fall of the USSR. The war in Ukraine has provided Trump the opportunity to tip his hands. Just as Gorbachev gradually turned away from former allies in the Eastern bloc, Trump has gone further by literally destroying the network of alliances which made the US the leader of the free world. If you want to know who a national leader is serving, you only have to identify who are the beneficiaries of the measures taken. So far, Russia is the clear recipient of the Trump re-election dividend and NATO the obvious losers. The question then arises: why would a national leader punish the nation’s long term allies and reward its long term foe?
“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Dr Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
Ideology has nothing to do with it. Russia has not altered its behaviour in any way. In fact, the invasion of Ukraine signals the long term objective of rebuilding the Russian empire. Ukraine, being the strongest opposition, conquering it would render the rest easy to annex. Putin, probably, first nursed the ambition to invade Ukraine during Trump’s first term. Trump was the perfect recruit for the KGB. He was a lousy businessman who faked his accomplishments; loves to live bigger than his legitimate income; cared very little about human rights and freedom; believes that might is right; above all, he is not patriotic, but would shout loudest that he loved America to avoid suspicion.
Nobody would ever know, not even Trump himself, when he first came to the attention of the KGB and Kremlin. Maybe, it was during his first attempt to run for President. He lost in the primaries, but, established himself as the candidate of the far right and the Nazi-Americans – the sort of thugs the Russians like to see in power; the people who would destroy democracy from within. With him in power Russia could win without firing a shot. When the Chinese philosopher and warrior, Sun Tzu,400-320 BC, announced that: “The supreme act of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”, he must have had in mind a situation in which Russia finds itself with regard to America and Trump. For a small investment in a man who is totally self-centred, they have managed to delete NATO and the Western alliance; got a despot elected as the President of the US; and Trump in turn has turned the world against America in less than two months of his second term. The US will never again be trusted by anybody.
NIGERIAN AIRFORCE AND FOLLY
“Brute force without wisdom falls by its own weight.” Horace, 65-8 BC
When the Nigerian Air Force officers were dispatched to go and deal with the staff of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, IKEDC, they went with force. But, not a single one of them had commonsense – not the officer who sent them or those who carried out the insane order. They are still disconnected. Now none of them wants to confess that they stole laptops and GSM sets at gun-point – meaning they have transformed into bandits in one foolish step….
Follow me on Facebook @ J Israel Biola.
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