Dear Comrades,
I would like to share with you my opinion related to the people who write for your magazine. I think that Cosmonaut Magazine needs to encourage its contributors to write articles with more accessible language, so that their great efforts may have wider appeal to general society. Also, I believe that contributors ought to use more literary metaphors. I state my opinions on the assumption that creating mass appeal is part of Cosmonaut Magazine’s goal. If it is not, please disregard this letter.
I will cite two examples in history that support my arguments. Both examples come from documentaries: 1) The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (2017) and 2) The Fog of War: An Errol Morris Film (2003).
In Episode 2 (Riding the Tiger) of The Vietnam War, the narrator describes that the United States and North Vietnamese governments knew that it was important to win “the hearts and minds” of the South Vietnamese people. Incidentally, Robert McNamara describes similar efforts in his book titled In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (1996).
Ultimately, the United States failed, because they did not know the Vietnamese people; they did not know Vietnamese history. Further explanation of this ignorance is documented in The Fog of War.
How did the North Vietnamese win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese people? Ho Chi Minh, the North Vietnamese leader, understood human nature. He was a well-educated person who had many diverse living experiences before returning to Vietnam. The narrator of the second episode of The Vietnam War says that Ho Chi Minh changed his appearance to that of an old man; he grew a long beard, and he dressed humbly. Minh changed his physical appearance, because he knew the Vietnamese custom to honor and respect elders. When he spoke to people, Minh used common language. Those simple actions helped the North Vietnamese to win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese people. These are the things the Americans did not get. How could they? They were foreign invaders who were ignorant of Vietnamese history and society.
Turning to Errol Morris’s documentary, I will cite the points made related to the Cuban missile crisis. Robert McNamara was John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense, and he was ever-present during the strategy sessions that would ultimately find an adequate solution to that crisis.
As stated by McNamara on multiple occasions throughout The Fog of War, the Kennedy administration was ignorant of Vietnamese history; however, he asserts that they knew the Soviets. One of Kennedy’s advisors, Tommy Thompson, had lived with Nikita S. Khrushchev and his family. Thompson knew Khrushchev’s behavior from personal experience, and because of that insight, McNamara states that the United States government avoided a nuclear confrontation with Cuba and the U.S.S.R.
McNamara quotes one specific telegram from Khrushchev that was dated October 26, 1962 at 7 p.m. Khrushchev’s words affected McNamara greatly, because one can observe it on McNamara’s face during that part of the documentary. Khrushchev wrote:
“If, however, you have not lost your self-control and sensibly conceive what this might lead to, then, Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose.”
Now, I am not asking Cosmonaut Magazine contributors to abandon the use of science to analyze the problems that world society faces due to the capitalist class and their Satanic mills; undoubtedly, they are causing much unnecessary pain and suffering for everyone else.
I am a man of science too. I earned a master’s degree in operations research years ago. I live and die by stochastic analysis of systems; however, I have learned that most people do not care about science and mathematics. Most people do not care about Marxian techniques of analysis. Yes, these facts are truly disheartening, because scientific thought can be the key to ending much widespread misery.
Most people care about metaphors, simple concepts, and uniting ideas. If that were not the case, we would not have so many people voting against their own best interests here in the United States with the Republican Party.
Sincerely,
Andrew
P.S. Here is the entire telegram sent by Nikita S. Khrushchev:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v06/d65
