During the same KAL 007 week, East German guards shot down a young man trying to cross the Sacred Socialist Border, at that part of it called the Berlin Wall. Crossing Sacred Socialist Borders is a death sentence no matter which way you’re going.
It is certainly a step up to have the likes of Andrew Cockburn concede the “thuggish” mentality of the Soviets (before slithering off to subjects more to his liking). Few paid much attention when Soviet dissident Andrei Amalrik observed, a while back, “Neither Americans nor Europeans realize that the Soviet leaders have the mentality of thugs.” Perhaps even that is too dignified for them. Suzanne Garment, in the Wall Street Journal, characterized to perfection the Soviets’ thinking about their territory: “Mine. Not yours. Boom, you’re dead.”
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