Reflections on Cold War Choir Practice by Lynn Rusten

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” That famous quote attributed to Mark Twain sprung to mind as I read Ro’s engaging play about a multigenerational Black family in Syracuse in the era of Ronald Reagan’s America and the Cold War. 

The play evoked memories of a period I lived through and brought to mind many parallels with present day domestic and international politics. In the early and mid-1980’s, fear of war between the Soviet Union and the United States was front of mind for many Americans. As Meek recites in the play, both countries had 30,000 nuclear weapons and kept them on high alert—bombers loaded with nuclear bombs on runways ready to take off on a moment’s notice and land-based and submarine-based strategic nuclear missiles ready to launch in minutes. There were no U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations in Ronald Reagan’s first term (1981-1984) when he pursued a massive military and nuclear build-up. U.S.-Soviet negotiations resumed in 1985, leading to the 1987 INF Treaty referenced in the play and the START Treaty signed in 1991. As a young official in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (later folded into the State Department), I served on the U.S. delegation in Geneva that negotiated the START Treaty with the Soviet Union. I also worked on the implementation of INF and START over many years.

I devoted my career to the goal of reducing the role, number, and salience of nuclear weapons and preventing their use. We succeeded in reducing the global nuclear stockpile from over 60,000 weapons to 14,000 today and we strengthened the norm against nuclear proliferation and use. But, today, there are now nine states, not just two, with nuclear weapons; we are at the cusp of a new multilateral nuclear arms race amongst the United States, Russia, and China; and Putin is blatantly using nuclear coercion and threats against Ukraine. The last remaining treaty between the United States and Russia – the New START Treaty (which I also worked on) will expire next year. But there are no negotiations underway to replace it, and now China is a factor too as it builds up its arsenal and resists negotiations. Just as Reagan wasted billions of dollars and fueled the arms race with his illusory Strategic Defense Initiative meant to protect the American homeland from nuclear missiles (the soccer net referenced in the play), so today is President Trump devoting billions of dollars on his dream of a Golden Dome missile defense system which may enrich Elon Musk and other defense contractors but will not provide failproof protection against incoming nuclear missiles. It will only stimulate Russia and China to build more nuclear weapons to overwhelm it and will make new treaties harder to achieve.   

Sadly, history also rhymes when it comes to domestic and racial politics – a critical throughline of this play. I winced at the line “The president ain’t thinking ‘bout us. Ain’t nobody thinkin’ ‘bout us – but us.” Because it rang so true – then and now. Leaders are not thinking about their constituents, and especially not about underserved Americans, when they pursue “trickle down” economic policies or spend billions on nukes rather than social programs. The play’s Black Deputy National Security Advisor negotiating the INF Treaty experiences impostor syndrome and feels excluded by white peers, while his family sees him more as a sellout than a success. A president’s economic policies – Reaganomics – disproportionally benefitted the wealthy and increased income inequality. Here history isn’t just rhyming – it’s repeating and doubling down. Just consider Trump’s “big beautiful” tax bill and his revolting repudiation of diversity, equity and inclusion and – let’s name it – his administration’s white racist domestic, immigration, and foreign policies.   

In the early 1980’s, children’s peace choirs like the one in the play, and the popular grassroots “Nuclear Freeze” movement arose because the American people did not want to live under the threat of nuclear annihilation due to a U.S.-Soviet war, nor did they support their government spending massive amounts of money on the nuclear arms race. This movement crescendoed just as I was finishing graduate school and starting my career in Washington. At the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) which provides nonpartisan research for members of congress and their staff, I wrote the recurring CRS Issue Brief for Congress on the Nuclear Freeze Movement and monitored the vigorous congressional debates on U.S. defense spending on nuclear weapons systems.

The Freeze movement is one element from our Cold War history that desperately needs to rhyme again: Though it seemed to recede after the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation has never left us. It’s just not in our collective consciousness the way it was when U.S.-Soviet confrontation was a constant front page story and school kids drilled for nuclear attacks rather than active shooters. There are now nine leaders with their finger on the nuclear button and multiple pathways to nuclear use by intention, accident or miscalculation, especially in the age of cyber and AI. The risk of nuclear catastrophe will continue to grow until the American people once again tell their elected representatives that we do not want to live under the threat of nuclear annihilation nor do we want our tax dollars wasted on weapons that threaten our security far more than they assure it.

One of the many things I appreciate and hope about Ro’s play is that it will not only entertain but also remind audiences that these threats have not gone away, and that every audience member – just like Meek, Puddin, and yes, Clay – has agency to help change that.