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Truth Mattered in the Cold War. And It Matters Now in Ukraine.
Truth Mattered in the Cold War. And It Matters Now in Ukraine.
A civilian holding a gasoline can watches Soviet tanks roll down the street during the 1968 invasion by Warsaw Pact forces in Prague, Czechoslovakia. (Photo by Hulton Archive via Getty Images, illustration by The Free Press)
Honorable men went to the gulag for refusing to repeat the Kremlin’s lies. Now an American president is echoing them for free.
By Eli Lake
03.05.25 — Breaking History
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The Free Press
The Free Press
Truth Mattered in the Cold War. And It Matters Now in Ukraine.

Today we’re bringing you the latest episode of Breaking History, the podcast where I go back in time, in order to make sense of the present. In the last episode, I told the backstory behind Donald Trump’s plan to declassify every file related to JFK’s assassination. This episode is about how America won the Cold War, with the help of dissidents who refused to repeat their regime’s lies: In the ’80s, the U.S. president aligned with the dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. And those dissidents prevailed. Today, he berates an heir to their struggle in the Oval Office.

You can listen to the episode below, or keep scrolling to read a print adaptation of it. If you enjoy either, follow Breaking History on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Let’s go back to a better time, when the Soviet empire was dissolving, one nation after another. Czechoslovakia, Poland, Lithuania, East Germany: In the late ’80s and early ’90s, all of them broke free from the Iron Curtain. On the right side of history stood America; in the landfill of history lay the Soviet Union.

This moment feels like a distant dream. Not only because the Russian bear is once again on the prowl, but also because the rhetoric of the American president has changed significantly from Ronald Reagan’s lofty directive, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

These days, we have Donald Trump expressing insane hostility toward Ukraine, a sovereign nation invaded by Russia; as I wrote last week, he seemed unmoved when Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of that nation, explained in the Oval Office that if Russia swallows his country, America will find itself with an empowered enemy.

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Eli Lake
Eli Lake is the host of Breaking History, a new history podcast from The Free Press. A veteran journalist with expertise in foreign affairs and national security, Eli has reported for Bloomberg, The Daily Beast, and Newsweek. With Breaking History, he brings his sharp analysis and storytelling skills to uncover the connections between today’s events and pivotal moments in the past.
Tags:
Donald Trump
Politics
International
Ukraine
History
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