"When I was a young man, living in the Soviet Union, I considered myself a Reagan Communist. After all, all Soviet citizens were supposed to be de facto communists, but I much preferred the free thinking and the free markets of the West. And I got in trouble with the Soviet authorities for saying so. Not just for saying it, but where I said it: in a long interview with Playboy magazine."
"Another example of how poorly I fit in with the Soviet power structure was when the American Embassy in Moscow held a reception for Ronald Reagan in 1988. I arrived and was told by the smirking Soviet official that I was not included on the list of Soviet guests. I told him he was looking at the wrong list. I had been invited by the Americans."
"So I have long had a strong belief that America was the good guy, which is why it's troubling when a man with the experience of today's guest, Admiral William McRaven, openly wonders whether America still wants to be the good guy. [Music] Kasparov: From The Atlantic, this is Autocracy in America. I'm Garry Kasparov. Bill McRaven is perhaps best known as the military commander who oversaw the SEAL Team Six raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011."
Garry Kasparov grew up in the Soviet Union and admired American values, preferring Western free thinking and free markets. He recalled punitive reactions from Soviet authorities for expressing pro-Western views, including a long Playboy interview and exclusion from official Soviet guest lists despite American invitations. Kasparov long believed America was the good guy. Admiral William McRaven led the SEAL Team Six raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. McRaven has recently spoken about the erosion of the military’s historically apolitical role and the implications for the military’s part in protecting democratic institutions.
Read at The Atlantic
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