Застойная оттепель

В 1959 бывший президент Гарри Трумэн дал определение политического застоя: "Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."

В этом могла быть шпилька в адрес Дуайта Эйзенхауэра. Мысль про «восемь серых лет» с отсылкой к республиканским администрациям 1920ых развил сенатор Джэк Кеннеди в выступлении перед профсоюзом работников автомобильной промышленности и их лидером Вальтером Райтером.

It is unpleasant to contemplate how much better off we would be today had this country raised its sights to the target you proposed in 1950. If we had geared our national economy to the needs of the developing world, if we had made clear our purpose of joining the human race in this great new human adventure, there would have been no occasion for an economic recession. For full production and full employment would have been necessary corollaries of a genuine program of world development. And when I say world development, I include the United States. We would not have remained satisfied with just the development of the Tennessee Valley but would have proceeded to develop the remaining underdeveloped areas in this country – those areas of low productivity and low wages and human depression that are bad for the labor movement and bad for the whole nation.
If we had kept our purpose clear, we would not have let our food rot while people seeking freedom in other lands hunger. If we had thrown ourselves with true American spirit into this new work of the world, if we had followed the course you suggested in 1950, we would not have idled along, with unemployment and partial production, while the Soviet Union rose to challenge us. If we had moved ahead with the pioneer spirit called for in your proposal for a total peace offensive, we would have had the initiative in the world, not Mr. Khrushchev. We would have explorers going around the moon and be on every new frontier of earth and space.
But instead we have been reactionaries in the literal meaning of the word. We have reacted to our adversaries’ moves and then with too little and too late. Lloyd George said: “There is no graver mistake than to leap the abyss in two jumps.” But we do not even seem to be trying to jump. On all fronts problems are facing us that should call forth our full imagination and energy. But instead of calls to greatness we wake up in the morning to read a headline like the one I read last week: “Space Age is Entering Its Third Year Today with U.S. Still Lagging.” I can find no better words to describe what has happened in these last years of our decline, these years of complacency, these years when we have disappointed the world and fallen behind in the fateful world competition in which we are engaged – I can find no better words than those used by Franklin Roosevelt in 1928 to describe the state of America under Harding and Coolidge. “The soul of our country,” Roosevelt said, “lulled by material prosperity, has passed through eight gray years.”
Let us put an end to this depression of our national spirit, let us put these dull, gray years behind us and take on the rendezvous with destiny that is assigned to us. Let us regain the American purpose and promise. Let us finish the task of securing full civil rights for all Americans. Let us, with full production and full employment, play our full part in the development of a world of peace and freedom. Let us join the human race.
https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/atlantic-city-nj-19591012

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Proposal, о котором говорит Кеннеди - брошюра Райтера под названием “A Proposal for A Total Peace Offensive to Stop Communist Aggression by Taking the Initiative in the World Contest for Men’s Minds, Hearts and Loyalties”. Она приведёт с созданию Peace Corps и к знаменитым словам Кеннеди “Ask not what your country can do for you...”

Россия прекратила программу Peace Corps в 2002 по наводке Николая Патрушева.

The State Department confirmed that Russia was withdrawing from the Peace Corps agreement. More than 700 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Russia since 1992.
Earlier this year, Russia denied visa renewals to 30 volunteers, cutting their number in half. Most of them were teaching English in provincial schools. Ten volunteers were denied visa extensions last year.
Nikolai P. Patrushev, director of the F.S.B., the successor agency of the K.G.B., said earlier this month that among those denied visas were ''persons who were engaged in gathering information about the sociopolitical and economic situation in Russian regions, about employees of organs of power and administration and about elections.''
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/28/world/russia-citing-changing-needs-ends-its-tie-with-peace-corps.html

Администрация Трампа в этом году самостоятельно прекратила программу Peace Corps в Китае, а после под предлогом пандемии отправила в отставку добровольцев во всех других странах и приказала им возвращаться домой.

For the first time in its nearly 60-year history, the Peace Corps had temporarily suspended its operations, evacuating more than 7,000 volunteers from posts in more than 60 countries because of the coronavirus pandemic. An independent agency of the U.S. government created by President Kennedy in 1961, the corps sends volunteers abroad to help with social and economic development projects. They dig wells, teach in schools and train people in everything from sewing to healthy breastfeeding.
In an open letter, Jody Olsen, the director of the Peace Corps, said the move was meant to protect volunteers and prevent them from being stranded during the pandemic. Within hours, volunteers were packing their bags, saying their farewells and rushing to designated meeting places as airlines canceled flights and countries began closing borders.
It was a crushing blow for a group of idealistic Americans, mostly young people who had postponed careers and graduate school to promote the lofty goal of “world peace and friendship.” Their average age is 26, although some are retirees older than 50. The hardest part, some said, was fleeing before they could help their communities prepare for the pandemic.
In interviews, a handful of volunteers described shock, confusion and heartbreak as they arrived back home in the United States, jobless in the middle of growing outbreak and economic shutdown. All were asked to quarantine themselves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/us/peace-corps-volunteers-fired-virus.html

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