Cold War Veterans Blog

Honor Denied American Troops?

Bush Honors Red Army at Victory Parade

The President Who Will Not Authorize a Cold War Victory Medal for Americaʼs Armed Forces in the Cold War Reviews Troops at Red Square
-Frank M. Tims, Ph.D.
Chairman, American Cold War Veterans, Inc.

The following article was published in the Prague Post and other newspapers:

By Peter Baker and Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; Page A01


MOSCOW , May 9 -- The goose-stepping troops hoisted hammer-and-sickle banners bearing the visages of the Soviet icon Vladimir Lenin. Gray-haired veterans waved red flowers from truckbeds, their chests brimming with medals and ribbons, their faces etched with the wear and tear of hard lives. The boom of artillery fire thundered across the air and jets roared overhead.
What Russians had never seen at a Victory Day celebration on Red Square until now, however, was an American president. In the shadow of the Kremlin walls near Lenin's tomb, George W. Bush joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and their counterparts from France, Germany , Japan , China , Italy and dozens of other nations for a Soviet-style display of military might to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi empire. On the same stand where Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev reviewed troops trained to fight American GIs, Bush paid tribute to the unparalleled sacrifice of the Russian people during World War II.