ROBERT McNAMARA DIES

ROBERT McNAMARA DIES 

June 9, 1916-July 6, 2009 

ROBERT McNAMARA 

at the Kennedy Library 

A consideration of his life, and another photograph, here, and an appreciation by Walter Pincus, here: McNamara three months ago was "Hopeful about initial steps taken by President Obama on nuclear weapons, but fearful about the nation's growing involvement in Afghanistan -- a situation so much like Vietnam." 

SALASPILS CAMP MEMORIAL, LATVIA

SALASPILS CAMP MEMORIAL

MEMORIAL TO THE VICTIMS

OF A CONCENTRATION CAMP IN SALASPILS
IN THE RIGA AREA, LATVIA

Photographed in 1984 in the USSR

"HERE BE GIANTS"

GILDA RADNER & PAUL SIMON

GILDA RADNER

&
PAUL SIMON

© Gwendolyn Stewart 2010; All Rights Reserved

A snapshot, just a quick grab shot, backstage at a New Jersey campaign rally for Bill Bradley in 1978, in honor of Gilda Radner, born on June 28, 1946, and lost to cancer twenty years ago.

One of a pair, this one somehow poignant, the other, sweet and flirty, for another time.

DUELING TVs #2: Warhol & Iran

DUELING TVs
#2

Photograph © Gwendolyn Stewart 2012; All Rights Reserved

Andy Warhol ("one of the most famous people in the world") on PBS, and an Iranian woman on ABC, photographed simultaneously, September 24, 2006.

DUELING TVs #1: Electric Iraq, Bush/Maliki

DUELING TVs
#1

Photograph © Gwendolyn Stewart 2010; All Rights Reserved

Update, February 3, 2010: An interesting Washington POST article on Nouri al-Maliki, where he came from, how he has maneuvered as Iraqi Prime Minister, and what his chances in the upcoming elections are, can be found here.

THE SEATS OF POWER, CHINESE STYLE

THE SEATS OF POWER
CHINESE STYLE

One of a Series 

TIANJIN RULING DUO 

Zhang Lichang (left), then Tianjin Party Secretary, and Li Shenglin (right), then Tianjin Mayor, at the 16th Congress of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, November 2002. 

AL PACINO IN "THE BASIC TRAINING OF PAVLO HUMMEL"

"THE BASIC TRAINING OF
PAVLO HUMMEL"

© Gwendolyn Stewart 2011; All Rights Reserved

STARRING

AL PACINO

There is talk of reviving David Rabe's play, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, and a preliminary casting notice has been posted (June 24, 2009). Al Pacino starred in the Theater Company of Boston's production in Boston (shown here) in 1972, and in 1977 on Broadway. Leonard DiCaprio is said to be interested in taking on the role; Pacino won a Tony for it. Will it keep its setting in the Vietnam War?

CHINA THEN & NOW: ON THE GRAND CANAL

CHINA THEN & NOW:

ON THE GRAND CANAL

© Gwendolyn Stewart 2010; All Rights Reserved

HANGZHOU, CHINA, 1981

BARBAROSSA: Nazi Germany Attacks the USSR

OPERATION BARBAROSSA


© Gwendolyn Stewart 2011; All Rights Reserved

THE BREST FORTRESS MEMORIAL

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union at Brest, in what is now Belarus. The Nazis were surprised by the resistance, memorialized by the Brest Fortress monument pictured above. 

"SIMPLY THE BEST"

"SIMPLY THE BEST" 

ROBERT LLOYD STEWART 

In Honor of Father's Day

ST. PETERSBURG WHIMSY

ST. PETERSBURG WHIMSY

© Gwendolyn Stewart 2010; All Rights Reserved

DOWN BY THE RIVER SIDE

A bit of whimsy from Peter -- not Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, but Peter the second capital of Russia, the affectionate shorthand for St. Petersburg -- a riverside confection photographed in 2006, after the G-8 summit, held in Russia for the first time that year.

"THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE": PERU PROTESTS ANSWERED

PERU FOR THE PERUVIANS:

WHICH PERUVIANS?

AND HOW?

MACHU PICCHU, PERU

"THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE"

The protests of the Amazonian Indians have led to the repeal of two decrees (No. 1090 and 1064) which made the indigenous peoples fear for the fate of their land. President Alan Garcia said the resources of the jungle should be made open for exploitation by outsiders for the good of the country as a whole. After two months of protests, ending in bloodshed, he has apologized, and said he made a mistake by not consulting with the native groups, the locals. This is seen as a victory for the Indians, but still leaves some of the same knotty problems.

THE SILK ROAD IV: BUKHARA

TIM ABDULLAH KHAN

© Gwendolyn Stewart 2010; All Rights Reserved

BUKHARA (UZBEKISTAN), USSR 1984

The man wears a helmet, the woman and the child (in the sidecar) take their chances. Or perhaps there was a law covering the driver of a motorcycle, and only the driver.

Bukhara, as we have seen, is an ancient Silk Road capital. The Tim Abdullah Khan (above) was a silk bazaar, dating back to 1577. There is a vivid description of its construction and role here. The practical result of this domed construction, for the visitor, is a drop of ten degrees in the summer heat when you enter into this covered marketplace.

BORIS YELTSIN ON SAKHALIN

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL

BORIS YELTSIN

IN THE CROWD 

OKHA, SAKHALIN, 1990 

To build on the themes of two earlier postings, the new Russian leader letting the people surge up close in Moscow, and touring the far eastern island of Sakhalin: Find Boris Yeltsin by that trademark thatch of white hair. And read more about it in RUSSIA REDUX. 

OVER SAKHALIN

FLYING OVER SAKHALIN

AIR SHOW DUO

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russia), USSR, 1990

Continuing east from Moscow -- via Baikal – we come all the way out to the island of Sakhalin, so far east in Russia that it is just north of Japan.

For tales of Boris Yeltsin's journey to Sakhalin (an eyewitness account), and a little of Anton Chekhov's (not an eyewitness account; Chekhov wrote the book on that himself, a century or so ago); for stories of oil and gas and timber and salmon, and KAL 007 and the Kurils, have a look at Russia Redux.

ABOVE LAKE BAIKAL

IN SIBERIA

BACK TO BAIKAL, 1990

While we are in the area, a photograph taken a half-dozen years later that gives some idea of Siberian country living.

This time I had come to Baikal and Irkutsk to cover the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. I stayed to see a bit more of the area around the lake, including the infamous Baikalsk paper plant, now once again in the news.

INTERLUDE ON LAKE BAIKAL

LATE AFTERNOON 

ON LAKE BAIKAL 

TWO WOMEN & THEIR KNITTING 

Listvyanka (Russia), USSR, 1984

Lake Baikal is famous as the "Gem of Siberia." I had been so keen to see it that I flew straight from Moscow to Irkutsk, the nearest big city, on my first trip to the USSR. 

NASA has posted two striking images of Baikal from space, iced over, here. 

More to come in RUSSIA REDUX

THE VICTORY GALA: REMEMBERING BORIS YELTSIN

THE VICTORY GALA

BORIS & NAINA YELTSIN CELEBRATE 

Following his victory in the first ever Russian presidential election on June 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin was feted in a victory gala. He is seen above in a pair of photographs; his wife, Naina, is with him on the left. 

I have been to political celebrations in the U.S. This one in Moscow felt different; something of a variety show, with poetry and music and humor, and flowers for the newly elected president. 

A bit of the human touch for someone who has been so widely caricatured. 

THE DAY OF RUSSIA: JUNE 12

THE DAY OF RUSSIA 

BORIS YELTSIN 

Returns to his car after voting 

Moscow, June 12, 1991 

On June 12, 1990, Russia in the guise of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, and under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin, declared sovereignty -- while still part of the USSR. One year later, on June 12, 1991, Russia held its first election for president, and Yeltsin won. By the end of the year, the Soviet Union was no more. 

June 12 was later designated Russia's National Day, the "Day of Russia." 

To show that he was closer to the people than his rival, Mikhail Gorbachev, the head of the USSR, Yeltsin allowed people to literally come up close and personal. In the photograph above Yeltsin is returning from his polling place to the car (for a photograph of Yeltsin holding his putting-the-ballot-in-the-ballot-box pose, look here under June 12, 2006). Some of the fervor he inspired, and the scrambling to get near him, can be sensed. Boris Yeltsin has the car door in his hands; his chief bodyguard, Alexander Korzhakov, has his back. And the crowd is pushing, pushing. 

Subjecting himself to a popular election won Yeltsin a meeting with U.S. President George Bush in the U.S. nine days later, and then, on July 30, a courtesy call by President Bush on President Yeltsin in his new Kremlin office (a photograph of the meeting can be found here). 

Today, June 12, 2009, George Bush turned eighty-five and went sky-diving in Kennebunkport, Maine. 

"RUSSIA REDUX" 

"THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE"

"THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE"

LIMA, PERU

Decree 1090, nicknamed the "Law of the Jungle," i.e., the Amazonian jungle, has been suspended by the Peruvian Congress, following deaths of both protesters and police.

For some of the developments leading up to this, see the earlier posting here and on this site (the June 6, 2009 posting).

AS THE WHEEL TURNS -- TO CHINA? II

CHINA THEN & NOW II 

NANJING 1981 

AS THE WHEEL TURNS II 

Forbid the ownership of private cars; start allowing for markets, especially in agricultural goods; and Voilà! Chinese farmers hitched up the farm machinery they did have, and drove to the city to sell their wares in town. 

Pictured above, vegetables being driven into Nanjing, China, in 1981. Outstanding feature of the vehicle of choice (or of the mother of necessity), what I came to call a "naked engine." 

"THE BEST & THE BRIGHTEST": ROBERT McNAMARA

ROBERT S. McNAMARA

TURNS NINETY-THREE TODAY

Former Secretary of Defense & President of the World Bank 

At a Forum on "13 Days" 

- Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis - 

At the John F. Kennedy Library 

Boston, Massachusetts, October 1, 2002 

Robert McNamara came out of the Harvard Business School and World War II a Whiz Kid, and whizzed his way up to the presidency of the Ford Motor Co., just in time to be plucked to become Secretary of Defense for President John F. Kennedy. 

Apparently, and not just by his own account, he played a cautionary role in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Those who have not lived through the crisis may not appreciate how close we seemed to come to nuclear war then. 

But he was anathematized for Vietnam; he remained Secretary of State when Lyndon Johnson became president and escalated the war. 

In early 1968, McNamara decamped for the presidency of the World Bank. There he remained until he retired in 1981 at sixty-five. The World Bank is certainly not without its critics, but his colleagues credit him with transforming "the institution from being a 'bank' into being the world's premier development agency," in order to concentrate on fighting poverty. 

In 1995 he published (with Brian Vandemark) In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, uncorking a new round of controversy: He admitted mistakes; was he sorry enough? 

Then in 2003, Errol Morris released The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. He found McNamara surprisingly approachable, and willing to talk.  And talk. 

But we are once again at war, again fighting enemies who favor "asymmetrical" warfare, and an old "metric" from the McNamara/Vietnam era has come back, and gained currency: The Body Count. The military, and Donald Rumsfeld, had turned against it in Iraq. But now we are being told -- seriously -- that it is good to use in Afghanistan. 

David Halberstam named his Vietnam book The Best and the Brightest, and bridled afterwards when some did not realize he meant the term ironically. Are we in danger of another Best and Brightest moment?

GUARDIAN OF THE DRAGON GATE

A FIERCE GUARDIAN

OF THE DRAGON GATE

THE LONGMEN GROTTOES

NEAR LUOYANG, CHINA

Luoyang (in Henan province) is one of the ancient capitals of China, and a major locus for the introduction of Buddhism into the Middle Kingdom. For several hundred years beginning in the fifth century, a vast panorama of Buddhist figures was carved out of a kilometer-long stretch of rock face and caves along the Yi River. These are known collectively as the Longmen (Dragon Gate) Grottoes. The central section of the ensemble includes an enormous Buddha, whose ears are 6'2". S/He is identified as the Vairocana (Vairochana) Buddha, a being with a countenance somewhere between placid and passive. Startling, then, to find among the Buddha's retinue the fierce warrior above, said to be a "'World Protector,' guardian of the Buddhist teachings."

It was startling, too, to hear this passage from Barack Obama's Inaugural Address: "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers." To have the new president strain so hard to be ecumenical, to be inclusive, as to include "non-believers" (and to think to pair "Jews" with "Hindus"), and yet leave out one of the great world religions, Buddhism, was, at best, disconcerting.