(Word spread yesterday of the passing of a world leader whose time in this world made a difference in ours. Some of our current history is part of an effort to reverse Mikhail Gorbachev’s legacy. We are publishing a book about how that all worked!)
We were surprised to see the news spreading yesterday. One of the great figures in our lives passed from this world to whatever the next one is. In the great scheme of the passage of time, we thought he had already gone. Apparently he had been sick for a while, and not prone to issue statements about his role in our collective past. The Writer’s Section down by the Fire Ring at Refuge Farm had touched on his direct intervention in our little lives. That was back when he was attempting to mitigate the collapse of the empire which had selected him to serve as the last master of a system that did not work: the amalgamation of Soviet Socialist Republics.
We ran the story of the Seasick Summit held off the isle of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea a few weeks ago. Some of us happened to be there in a matter of personal memory. A few of us were executing perfectly routine orders to serve inside the delicate steel hands of USS Forrestal, a proud ship named for the first Secretary of Defense. The transposition of genders between the femininity of ships and the humans for whom they were named continues. Secretary Forrestal is said to have thrown himself from a 16th floor window at what was then the Naval Hospital complex at Bethesda, Maryland.
Those of us who served within her knew the ship by her nickname, “First In Defense,” or simply the snippet “FID.” We were part of the background setting of stage props for the Summit, and we will not plow that ground again, since it is part of a longer story that emphasizes the importance of “presence” and “commitment” in the international order. Those terms were part of the legacy that Mikhail Gorbachev left us, which was an only moderately uncertain peace. The Summit was part of events the current President of Russia, Mr. Putin, has spent his time in power attempting to reverse.
At the time, Mr. Gorbachev was attempting to manage a transition from Cold War to Cold Peace. Those of us who were part of the usual elaborate stage show of military power were directed to be unobtrusive in our presence. And non-provocative. It was not the time to demonstrate “resolve” or “determination.” Instead, we were directed to quietly visit the usual ports of call along the French coast, and make the usual appearances in places where potential demonstrations of power were useful for American foreign policy.
Those demonstrations were intended only to be supportive, not provocative. Mr. Gorbachev chose his exit to be a demonstration of peaceful transition. We had no idea we were actually participating in a historic time, and the account that remains from those days on the Wine Dark Sea mix the sights and sounds of the Biblical Era with those of other smaller conflicts that followed. Weeks ago, a ship that had been active in the long-ago Summit was sunk in the Black Sea as part of a Russian military special operation. We looked at the images with wonder, remembering what it was like to work and live on ships painted gray and underway in places far away.
We are in the process of publishing “Last Cruise” as an account of transition in human affairs. That the actual passing of Mikhail Gorbachev should coincide with our modest effort to capture what it was like to live the times is a bitstartling, considering men like Mr. Putin have devoted their lives to making their times as historic as those.
As veterans of some of those historic times, we would like to remember that “peace” is sometimes the answer to great tectonic change in human affairs. The difference between the approach of Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Putin is dramatic. Down on the Farm, we prefer the one without bloodshed and carnage. Since Mr. Putin has already made a choice in that approach, we would like to make a tip of our caps to the memory of a man whose approach to history let us all live to remember it. Our version of that history will be published shortly.
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(CAPT Fields Richardson, our Air Wing Commander, chats with the President of the United States regarding the visit of the last leader of the Soviet Union. The President knew to concentrate on the camera!)
Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com