Jack Matlock: We must return to the position Reagan and Gorbachev set out

http://www.therussophile.org/jack-matlock-we-must-return-to-the-position-reagan-and-gorbachev-set-out.html/
On Tuesday, Ambassador Jack Matlock testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
He told the Committee that he is “deeply concerned with the direction U.S.-Russian relations has taken of late.
The mutual accusations and public acrimony has at times been reminiscent of that at the height (or depth!) of the Cold War.”
Today’s tensions are not about ideology.
Russia is now a capitalist country and is not trying to spread communism in the world.
Today’s tensions are more like those that, through incredible misjudgment, brought on World War I.
That is, competition for control of territory in and outside Europe.
We know how it ended; every European country involved suffered more than they could possibly have gained.
Competition over territory was bad enough a century ago.
Since World War II, however, the danger has risen exponentially if countries with nuclear weapons stumble into military conflict.
So how did we end the Cold War and reduce this threat?
One key element was an agreement that President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev made in their very first meeting.
They agreed on a statement that Reagan had made in two previous speeches: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
And then they added, since both countries were nuclear powers, “That means, there can be no war between us”.
I believe there are dignified ways we can reduce tension with Russia on those issues and others.
However, the main thing we should bear in mind is that in confronting the greatest dangers to civilized life in this century such as terrorism, failed states, organized crime, and environmental degradation, U.S. and Russian basic interests do not conflict.
We must return to the position Reagan and Gorbachev set out:
“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and that means there can be no war between us.”
To act on any other principle can create a risk to our nation—and the world—of unimaginable gravity.

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