It feels a bit gratifying to have one of the presidential nominees taking the time to address the historical epoch of my dissertation.
On the other hand, I have to take issue with his characterization of events (mostly the assertion that Czechoslovakia went Communist and joined the Warsaw Pact not by choice, but because Soviet tanks occupied the country at the end of the Cold War). At best it’s an oversimplification, but at worst it shows how much politicians, analysts and others — to say nothing of the general public — seem to lack a more nuanced understanding of things. I hope this isn’t indicative of anyone’s grasp on current world events, but I fear it is.
I also find it a bit weird how, in the video, Obama keeps mentioning the Czech Republic (along with countries such as Ukraine, Estonia and Bulgaria), but never mentions Slovakia. To his credit, he does make a point of speaking of “Czechs and Slovaks,” as opposed to “Czechoslovaks” or just “Czechs,” but it’s a little weird, and I kept wondering if he was deliberately slighting Slovakia, or if he’s just like McCain and forgets Czechoslovakia went out of business in 1993.
But, yeah, it’s nice to have my brief moment of relevance, even if no one will remember it tomorrow.
yeah, 40 years last night…happy anniversary:) I think this warrants a re-watching of ‘Pelisky’ 🙂
interesting comments about the candidates’ ‘knowledge’ of our part of the world.