[speaker001:] feel about um the Russian situation right now
[speaker002:] well I am more uh more scared than than ever actually by it because it to me if you look at the uh situation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe it closely parallels the situation around the turn of the century with the fall of the Ottoman empire
[speaker001:] um-hum um it is very unstable right now
[speaker002:] yeah and there's a the huge power vacuum and no one to control the local economies over there the inner uh trade between those republics and the satellites uh or what used to be the satellites of the Soviet Union and I'm afraid that it's just going to gonna have regional
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] infighting just like there was before World War One and we're going to be stuck in another war
[speaker001:] yeah I'm it's really scary because I you know I I had a conversation or I heard it over a conversation that they had with Gorbachev on the news
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] stating that he needs to get you know like a United States set up over there because they're not gonna make the winter without the food and the electricity
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and if they don't if if people don't have food and electricity they're gonna go after it somehow and they're and they're gonna fight it out instead of doing it calmly like he's trying to have done now
[speaker002:] sure right
[speaker001:] um I went over to the Soviet Union uh about three years ago
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] and it was very sad they it the economy over there is very poor um
[speaker002:] yeah and it's worse now
[speaker001:] oh yeah and when we went over there we were not allowed you know off this bus or you know into the you know onto the streets or anything like that well when I went I did anyway and I got out and um
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um you know yeah I know it we barely got back but um
[speaker002:] rebel you
[speaker001:] we went into the black market where kids our age were you know I'm twenty three
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker001:] and we went down there and these kids wanted anything that was made that was American Lee jeans your coats your shoes anything that you brought with you and they'd give you things
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] because they wanted these clothes and they looked just like we did because they would ask for these clothes and stuff so after you came out it was very sad people were in the real drab clothing and whenever you bought something you'd have to go through four or five lines to get it
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and it was you know really sad to see that but um yeah it it's something else over there everything's breaking down when we the motel we stayed in you know you could only stay in American hotels
[speaker002:] sure
[speaker001:] and uh um the we didn't have water for four days and when we did get it it looked like apple juice it was awful and and you know to see how they live over there
[speaker002:] oh God hey wait a minute the water comes out here it it looks like that too
[speaker001:] right and it was just real sad to see it that way but um you know like our tour guide was a sixteen year old girl um she was married and living with her parents and you know they live in the apartment buildings around there
[speaker002:] uh-huh jeez
[speaker001:] and because she got the job because she could speak English
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so she got to be a tour guide and it was really bizarre because um she couldn't shave her legs or anything and they couldn't get razors and so um she asked for us to go into the American shop and buy her razors so that she could do that and it was just something else to see
[speaker002:] the wonders of Western culture get to shave your legs
[speaker001:] yeah you know yeah and and well you know and you know everywhere I went over there it was it was like that but she wanted to do that and and so did every you know all the kids that were our age were you know wanting to be more like that and so it's really scary because there's gonna be something something's gonna have to happen
[speaker002:] uh-huh so you did this one year in college where'd you go to school
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I did um Northern State in Aberdeen South Dakota
[speaker002:] South Dakota no I'm an officer in the Air Force at uh Griffis Air Force Base
[speaker001:] yeah oh okay
[speaker002:] yeah so I'm I'm just a lieutenant I'm only twenty four so I'm it's interesting hearing from someone
[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] of my perspective I always think that my view is always so much older and uh more conservative but uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] I don't know I've maybe done older spent a little more time learning from history than the average armchair uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh right listening to the TV type of thing um-hum
[speaker002:] yeah yeah and everybody's jumping up and down praising all this and you you know it great
[speaker001:] they don't understand what's gonna happen
[speaker002:] yeah you know there's I think there's only one thing that's worse than the Communist government and that's no government
[speaker001:] that's right and on right now they're bordering on that because there's nothing there
[speaker002:] yeah there there really are
[speaker001:] you know you've got two leaders one thinks he's doing it and one Gorbachev thinks he's you know got it and you know Yeltsin's got half and and the KGB is supposedly gone but um
[speaker002:] well I don't think uh uh I don't think you can rule out anything like that
[speaker001:] no you can't you can't they're to they were too powerful for too long
[speaker002:] and especially when when it gets to the point where things are really desperate then uh then the military becomes a threat as well
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and uh
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] you know there the military still has a lot of power
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and somebody has to control all those nuclear weapons it's not even the the situation isn't even is so much