From: kfree@pnet01.cts.com (Kenneth Freeman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: U.S.S.R. in SF
Date: 19 Sep 91 03:16:03 GMT
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA

kasprj@vccsouth12.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak) writes:
[Deletion]
> One of his earlier novels (was it _Starship Troopers_?) mentions, in
>the context of a history class, a conflict between the "Russo-Anglo-
>American Alliance" and the "Chinese Hegemony" which took place in the
>late 20th or early 21st century. While that may not be exactly what's
>happening today, it seems more plausible now than it did when the 
>book was first published, or even five years ago.
>------------------------------------------------------------------
 
       "More than several years have passed since the events here recorded
happened. Many international relatinships have changed. Deep rifts have opened
between former comrades. New and perhaps darker clouds have gathered. Old foes
have become friends and even allies. In this setting some of the sentiments
and expressions contained in telegrams, minutes, and reports of Conferences
may jar upon the readers in other countries. I can only remind them that these
documents have an historical value and that we were then engaged in a fierce
and terrible war. When men are fighting for their lives, they are not often
disposed to be complimentary to those who are trying to kill them. On the
other hand, to soften all harsh expressions about the enemy nations of those
days would prevent a true picture being presented. Time and Truth are
healers." -Winston Churchill, _Closing the Ring_, September 1, 1951 
 
      "...the enemy nations of those days..."
 
      "There is a nice story of a political prophet in Munich in 1928, who was
asked to prophesy what would be happening to the burghers of his city in five,
fifteen, twenty and forty years' time. He began: 'I prophesy that in five
years' time, in 1933, Munich will be part of a Germany that has just suffered
5 million unemployed and that is ruled by a dictator with a certifiable mental
illness who will proceed to murder 6 million Jews.'
      "His audience said: 'Ah, then you must think in 15 years' time we till
be in a sad plight.'
      "'No,' replied the prophet, 'I prophesy tht in 1943 Munich will be part
of a Greater Germany whose flag will fly from the Volga to Bordeaux, from
northern Norway to the Sahara.'
      "'Ah, then you must think that in twenty years' time, we will be mighty
indeed.'
      "'No, my guess is that in 1948 Munich will be part of a Germany that
stretches from only from the Elbe to the Rhine, and whose ruined cities will
recently have seen production down to only 10 per cent of the 1928 level.'
      "'So you think we face black ruin in forty years' time?'
      "'No, by 1968 I prophesy that real income per head in Munich will be
four times greater than now, and that in the year after that 90 per cent of
German adults will sit looking at a box in a corner of their drawing rooms,
which will show live pictures of a man walking upon the moon.'
      "They locked him up as a madman, of course." -General Sir John Hackett,
et al., _The Third World War: August 1985_, pub. 1979.
---
If people did not sometimes do silly things,
nothing intelligent would ever get done. -Wittgenstein
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