This diary started out in life as a comment posted on annieli’s Ukraine Invasion Day 847.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin published an article in North Korean state-owned newspaper Rodong Sinmun praising Russian–North Korean cooperation on the eve of his visit to North Korea, likely to frame any future support that North Korea will lend to Russia as part of a common struggle against the West.
Russia’s president for life Vladimir Putin will visit Vietnam this week, after the jaunt to North Korea. If all goes according to plan (with Putin, that’s not a given), a red-carpet treatment in Hanoi is to be expected.
The alliance between the two countries dates from the time Vietnam fought against French colonization, in the 1940s. Vietnam has a visceral hatred of China and right or wrong, in Russia it sees a protector. In return, it has shown nearly unwavering loyalty. My personal experience of that loyalty goes back almost 70 years.
On July 21 1954, the Geneva Accords signaled my native country had finally wrestled its independence from France. It was to be split into North and South. For three months exactly, one could move freely between North (placed under a Communist regime) and South (with a government to be modeled after Western democracies). Many families began the exodus to the South, rejecting the prospect of living with the Communists. They parted with elderly parents and close friends who had chosen to stay put. They left behind possessions, animals, houses, properties.
My extended family took off a few days before the Geneva Accords were enforced. My parents stayed behind, for reasons of their own. Then something happened that changed their minds.
One late December afternoon, the precinct leaders knocked on our door and told my parents I was to join a parade. Before they could protest, I was in the street among many other children. We were given a sheet of paper glued to a stick — a makeshift flag, with the picture, we were told, of Uncle Stalin. (“Uncle,” really? My uncles didn’t look anything like that.) Prodded by organizers, we waved that picture repeating chants in posthumous glorification. I was seven. With the instinct of a child, looking at that strange smile I thought this was one mean guy. In my family circle, the adults smiled or didn’t, they didn’t smile halfway, with eyes looking away. It was thoroughly revolting too, that I was made to do something pretty stupid. The good thing about the incident is that it convinced my parents to flee Communist rule and rejoin the larger family in the South.
I don’t remember the details of our escape. Just that it was a cold, early January morning, I was told we had to “be careful,” and we boarded several trains.
We left Hanoi with a few changes of clothes. I packed Au Pays Bleu, a gift from my oldest cousin. Most essentially, I took with me the indelibly bad memory of the Stalin flag parade. Ever since that winter afternoon, I valued self-determination and maintained an unnuanced, if primitive, sense of good and evil.
Putin’s invasion on February 24, 2022 threatened Ukraine’s existence. It also rekindled the affront the Stalin flag had done to my psyche way back when. Which solidified my support for Ukraine into an absolute.
I’m all in for Ukraine, because Ukraine is Good and Putin is Evil."
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I felt compelled to re-post the comment as a diary because several things happened since.
- President Biden underperformed at the June 27 debate. The opposition, the media and pundits, and now supposed leaders of the Democratic party (although not being Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer) piled on and want the President to pull out of the race.
- According to polls (we know better than to believe them, yet we read and quote them), the hard-earned lead over the trump guy is gone.
- The Supreme Court’s decision in matters of immunity for the trump guy is an affront to the Constitution.
- An autocratic axis is being formed under our very eyes to defeat Ukraine and allies: Russia and North Korea signed various agreements. China will cooperate with Russia to produce upgraded Iranian drones to further devastate Ukraine. This axis will overtake the world if it gets its way with Ukraine.
I am appealing to Kos readers and their family and friends: Please, vote for Joe Biden come November 5. Here’s how I see things.
- Big companies don’t like Joe Biden. He wants to rein in their bad practices, and that cuts into their profits.
- Billionaires don’t like Joe Biden. He wants to raise taxes on them.
- Big companies and billionaires who own these companies don’t like Joe Biden for another reason. They own the Supreme Court. It has handed down major decisions in their favor. They’re afraid Joe Biden will curb Supreme Court abuses.
- Major papers and TV channels/ stations give Joe Biden bad press. That’s because are owned by billionaires. The news we get are thus contaminated. Social media only amplify these sources.
- Russia doesn’t like Joe Biden. Biden grew up in the Cold War era. He knows that Russia, from the Stalin era, sees a rival in the U.S. Sometimes they wish us ill, and they know he knows.
- Putin doesn’t like Biden. Biden as Senator had interacted with Putin when Putin took power in 2000. Biden had plenty of opportunities to size him up. (As an aside, the late Senator John McCain also knew Putin, and Putin didn’t like being sized up. That’s why the first words out of the trump guy’s mouth on the campaign trail were to disparage the Senator.) At the moment, Joe Biden is the only politician in America and on the world stage who can oppose Putin effectively. It’s important to know one’s enemy, and Biden knows this enemy. Putin/ Russia doesn’t want Biden to win. Biden re-elected will continue to oppose their goals. Putin/ Russia wants the trump guy to win. He’s their guy.
Note: When I say “like”, “it’s nothing personal, it’s just business.”
Autocracies have a limitless appetite for control. They want to remake the world in their image. It’s a sickness. Don’t let autocracies and their capitalist analogs, the big companies and billionaires, contaminate our world. In their rage to dominate and accumulate more wealth, they will kill democracy, a free press, freedom of thought. Imagine the next fourths of July if the trump guy wins. Fireworks in the sky will write out his name out in glorification, our children and grandchildren will parade in the streets as I did that December afternoon of 1954, waving flags of Vladimir Putin, singing inept songs.
We the People are not big companies, billionaires, or agents of autocracies. For ourselves and our children and grandchildren, vote for Joe Biden on November 5.
A grateful naturalized citizen