November 16, 1999

Once upon a time, a group of academics found themselves in possession of a new toy, courtesy of the Department of Defense. It was a communications system designed to survive the thermonuclear war that once many thought was inevitable. (*) Much to everyone's surprise, the totalitarian government in Moscow (whose power we so feared) fell in an almost bloodless coup, to be replaced by a democratic government that is now very often the voice of reason in a West that has forgotten how to listen to it.

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