I recently read a book titled The Company by Robert Littell, the same book that spawned the 2007 television mini-series starring Chris O’Donnell http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488352/?ref_=nv_sr_5.  I never saw the series but it’s easy to assume the book blew away anything made into a TV show.  I’d classify The Company in one of my favorite genres, espionage fiction, ala Vince Flynn, John LeCarre or Daniel Silva.  It centered on the rise of both the CIA and the KGB after World War 2 and their subsequent interactions throughout the Cold War up until and including the fall of the Soviet Union.  While a tad long for someone like me with the attention span of a fire-ant I did finish it in less than a week and consider it time well spent.

The book got me to thinking of whether or not the Cold War ever really ended.  I know I shouldn’t presume the world’s secrets from reading a fiction book but I did some fact-checking and much of it is historically accurate. The book details the gamesmanship between the KGB and the CIA and the clever, often fatal games they would play with each other.  One of the lasting strategies the KGB used was making the CIA feel they were gaining the upper hand and that the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, particularly with respect to their military and intelligence capabilities. This got me wondering if the “fall of the Soviet Union,” was an at least somewhat choreographed event, just one more ploy in this ongoing battle between the respective intelligence agencies. I’m not saying the fall was 100% faked, but as events unfolded it would be within the realm of the typical for the KGB to have sought an angle in which to use events to their advantage.  In other words, the KGB capitalized on the fall of the Soviet government to play the ultimate long con. All they KGB would have to do is fade into the shadows and continue to fight the United States much like they did in Vietnam.  After all, that’s what much of the Cold War was, us and them fighting in the shadows through more overt action.  From our failed attempts to lead a Hungarian revolt to their failed attempts to place nuclear weapons in Cuba.  Later their behind the scenes training and support of the North Vietnamese and vice versa with us and the Mujahideen in Afghanistan.

That was one aspect that the book focused on that I wasn’t as aware of, having not lived through Vietnam and being a young child during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.  Those two wars were completely fought with arms supplied by the opposing Cold War enemies.  The Soviets let the North Vietnamese do their bidding, we did the same with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan.  These were covert operations funded and supplied via the shadows by the respective intelligence communities of the two powers.

One difference is that the Soviets had no worry of future backlash from supplying the Vietnamese unlike our worry while funding the Mujahideen.  At the time men with foresight in the US were worried sick that by supplying weapons, particularly Stinger missiles, the Mujahideen would one day turn our own weapons against us. This was exactly what would eventually happen.

It’s always rumored these days, and where there is smoke there is usually fire, that the modern-day Russians are supplying America’s enemies with x-ray goggles or other weapons of war that are used against them on the battlefield.  It’s not hard to imagine that these aid packages go a bit farther than simple goggles and kevlar vests is it?  And who is to know exactly what aid our enemies get from communist China or their proxy, North Korea.  (Yeah, I said it, I think China and even Russia, laugh with glee every time those backward-ass North Koreans make one of their high school quality video productions of an attack sonnet involving New York City, or rattle their saber in some weapon test off the coast of South Korea.)  We pretty much know China thinks it’s hilarious, and something tells me that the former Soviets have a cozy relationship with the only real bastion of current communism, China.

Given all of this conjecture, there is by no means hard proof of anything.  But it would surprise me none if some back channels of KGB operatives are still fighting the cold war and when the Soviet Union fell, got together and said “this is just what we need to ultimately pull the wool over the eyes of the United States.”  Even now, as that country has grown and prospered with the introduction of capitalism, the old cold war feelings of resent and mistrust persist, despite few seeming differences as to our societal and monetary policies. These guys are still pissed about their seeming loss in the Cold War, and much like an isolated Japanese soldier on a remote Pacific island, I don’t think some of them got the message (or accepted the message) that the Cold War is over.  By supplying the terrorists in places like Afghanistan and commiserating with known assholes like Ahmadinejad in Iran, these guys are still plotting the downfall of the United States.

I read another book by the author Brad Thor, in which China takes advantage of a terrorist network to attack the good United States. Something called “total war,” which is not dissimilar to what General William Tecumseh Sherman instigated to finish the southern states in the American Civil War.  I don’t remember the name because I read all of Mr. Thor’s books in a quick sitting of about a month, but the premise made a lot of sense.  Essentially they killed the leadership of an Arab terrorist network and planted new leaders to impersonate Wahhabbist assholes and plan and carry out attacks on the United States. However without the fanaticism getting in the way of sound strategy, the Chinese brought some Sun-Tzuesque Art of War to this battle.

It makes sense to me that this is entirely possible.  The enemies of the United States all working behind the scenes together to bring us down, with the strings really being pulled by former Soviets.  Far-fetched?  Maybe, maybe not.  The US is facing major problems, that threaten to end our reign much like the fall of ancient Rome. Politicians are too busy arguing with each other to realize what is happening under their noses and pull together to get something done.  As we fall further into debt, the value of the dollar decreases, and we spread our selves thin by policing the world, we become susceptible to the fall of an empire.

Russia is governed by a former KGB lieutenant in Vladimir Putin.  He’s an old cold-warrior who like a spurned lover continues to plot and encourage the fall of the American empire. China is more overt but make no mistake, Putin is no friend of the United States.  He’s also smart, smart enough to realize that playing the long-game with regard to the fall of the Soviet Union is sound strategy.  As the United States intelligence community is distracted fighting the War on Terror, and American armed forces are spread thin around the globe.  An old foe continues the battle by playing possum.