The principal challenge of the United States was not becoming the worlds policeman. organizing friendly (and not so friendly) nations to fight territorial aggression. or even instructing them in how to make peace. but to assume a wholly new role. to see itself as the quintessential "modern society." divided and fractious. a microcosm of global society. with all its racial and cultural conflicts and divisions. The old sort of Cold War Manichaeanism. with its simple good guyl bad guy divisions. had reduced all political debate to television drivel. * * * More seriously. it had forced the United States to repudiate its longstanding utopian ambitionto be democratic and open. Whether or not Gorbachev survives as the President of a viable Soviet Union. whether or not Baker succeeds in pressuring Israel "to give peace a chance." the new world. a disordered world. will be one of nationalist resurgence and religious intolerance. of economic and social inequities that produce violent explosions. made all the more incendiary when restrictive immigration policies are introduced in many places in Europe and elsewhere to remove a safety valve provided by the more prosperous to those they wish to employ in menial pursuits. The world is more dangerous not because Communism has failed but because decades of Cold War have raised ambitions. and not only in Europe. An American. reflecting on this. may wish to draw different conclusions from four decades of the Cold War.
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immigration