[speaker002:] so you think uh the Soviet Union's a threat anymore to US
[speaker001:] you know I was I was thinking about that while I was waiting for the connection I I think uh you know it's uh uh a military threat certainly I don't feel like it's like it was back in the the sixties whenever Kruschev said he was going to bury us
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh at the same time I I think they may still be a threat in a different sort of a way in that uh the situation over there is so unstable
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and and the especially the economics uh uh ramifications of whatever is going to happen over there I mean they're like a a quarter of the land mass of the earth
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] you know and and if things don't get straightened out over there it it will impact us one way or the other I think
[speaker002:] right right I think I'm just afraid of uh what they're going to do with their nuclear warheads that they already have right now that uh they said you know they're open to uh anybody who's willing to pay the money I think uh Ukraine said that you know if you've got the money for it we'll give you the warheads
[speaker001:] is that right I hadn't heard that
[speaker002:] yeah and uh I'm just afraid you know some some guy like Sadaam Hussein
[speaker001:] yeah or or any one of the other uh nuts that are running around yeah
[speaker002:] oh yeah I mean you could get someone like you know the guy who uh who negotiates arms you know you know he buys them out sticks them in his arsenal and starts selling them to everybody in the world
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah well it's uh I don't know it's it's amazing to see uh the kind of changes that's happened just in the past uh you know not even ten years or even five years it's just awesome
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah yeah well you know it's I guess the break up it's self was was uh kind of unusual and then now all of a sudden you know Gorbachev who was uh in the US's pocket pretty much
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] is now gone you know and now we've got Yeltsin uh Yeltsin who seems like he's a little bit of a hard ball typical
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] typical communist
[speaker001:] yeah but even so he seems to be a much more reasonable person than than you know previous Soviet leaders
[speaker002:] oh yeah doesn't right right that's true
[speaker001:] and uh you know it's just uh uh you see this the uh you know on television the the uh shows uh on the news with the the people waiting in line
[speaker002:] um-hum uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] they had last night I think it was on ABC where some Soviet doctors had gone on strike because their uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] monthly salary was about enough money to buy them six pounds of sausage with you know the new increase in prices
[speaker002:] right hm
[speaker001:] which is you know of course doctors over there aren't held in the same rare high esteem that they have here in the US
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum well
[speaker001:] but
[speaker002:] the other thing was uh like nuclear scientists over there were being uh taken in by you know other countries you know
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] because I mean like you said they're not being paid very much over there and and whereas they can command salaries of you know twenty thousand dollars a month in uh you know these middle eastern countries that you know oil bearing countries you know and I saw that they uh Iraq and Iran had offered uh twenty thousand dollars a month to nuclear scientists I mean
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] who wouldn't want that kind of money
[speaker001:] yeah yeah you know I I would even consider moving to Iraq for that I mean
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] yeah really well anyway it's
[speaker002:] but I mean and and these and these are guys that couldn't eat you know so
[speaker001:] yeah yeah well as a matter of fact I know that uh you know they they were concerned about the Soviet brain drain because there're so many of their top people just uh like you say they they
[speaker002:] so
[speaker001:] you know are are being given offers elsewhere and some of them I think are even coming to the US if we can get them you know rather than let them uh go to one of those third world countries
[speaker002:] right um-hum um-hum um-hum well I think the US is eventually going to have to step in I mean you've got this you know big country that's now uh pretty much uh in chaos because uh I mean the all the things that's split up and they've got the nuclear arsenal to you know pretty much eliminate the rest of the world and uh they've asked for US support and I think the US is going to have to give in
[speaker001:] well I'm all for them providing as you know as much support as we can at the same time you know it's time for us I think as a country to run us you know the rest of the world really is not our responsibility
[speaker002:] because yeah um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] it's good for us to look after our own best interests even in uh you know an international way but at the same time we I don't think that we have the resources to bale out the entire Soviet Union
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum um-hum no I don't think as far as bail out goes I'm thinking more on the sense of uh um helping them take the infrastructure they have and putting it to use I mean they've got a good infrastructure there I mean they at one time were you know they they were a threat to the US I mean they had the weapons ability they had the manufacturing capability
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and I think it's all kind of disorganized right now
[speaker001:] you know the amazing thing about about it is how these people who've been operating for you know seventy generations under a uh uh you know the the protectorate protectorate of the the government over them that they really don't even have a concept of what capitalism is
[speaker002:] right um-hum yeah yeah
[speaker001:] and and and as a matter of fact I'm not a guy with my company was in Moscow several weeks ago and I asked him what it was like and he said you know he said they start drinking vodka at ten o'clock in the morning
[speaker002:] uh-huh um-hum yeah yeah yeah I wish there was that kind of uh stuff over here it'd be great
[speaker001:] but uh anyway it's uh uh I don't know there there just
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] they've got a really uh different outlook and a different mentality than uh uh people than have anybody that has been accustomed to living uh under any form of capitalism and it's going to take quite a while for them to to realize that uh
[speaker002:] um-hum hm um-hum yeah yeah