Stay classy, San Diego
Posted: Thursday, October 25, 2007 3:11 PM by Sam Singal
Filed Under:
Brian Williams
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
There's no city in America as stressed as San Diego right now. And there's no city any stronger. Smoke fills the air, there's a crisis underway, and almost to a person, they are dealing with it beautifully. People have come together in some extraordinary ways. During our time in the city, I never heard a voice raised in anger or frustration. Firefighters work days on end without evident fatigue.
I walked to our superb local station the other night from my hotel, to see my friends who work there. I simply felt the need to pay homage to their coverage and salute the absolutely incredible job they've been doing, broadcasting around the clock -- a genuine public service in a city seared by disaster. They are so proud of their city and their work, and they have every reason to be. They have welcomed our huge Nightly News road show with open arms, through the fog of exhaustion.
The lobby of our hotel is a sea of people displaced by the fires. Families with children, children carrying cages housing hamsters, golden retrievers who seem thrilled at absolutely everything - wagging their tails with excitement at the chance to meet so many new friends. That's pretty much the San Diego way these days. What a challenge, what a horror, what a great collection of people coming together to heal what these flames have done. Keep them all in your thoughts and prayers.
Day Trip
Today is October 25th, and -- like every day of the year -- it has a little history behind it, if you know where to look. Take six years ago today, for example. On October 25, 2001, the Senate passed major new legislation, signed into law the next day by President Bush. The new law came to be known as the Patriot Act, and it gave the government sweeping and controversial new powers to fight terrorism. Critics claimed it went too far, eroding civil liberties and constitutional safeguards. Others disagreed. It was, remember, just weeks after 9/11; the Senate vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the bill (98 to 1; only Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin voted no).
Just a few months later, President Bush made his famous reference to Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an “axis of evil.” The phrase evoked the Axis powers of World War II: Germany, Italy and Japan. Which brings us all the way back to October 25th, 1936 -- the date the Axis was born, when Italy announced it had formed an alliance with Nazi Germany (Japan would join later). In a speech about the new alliance, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini said, “This Berlin-Rome protocol is not a barrier, it is rather an axis around which all European States animated by a desire for peace may collaborate.” The word “axis” stuck, though it led not to peace, but a massively destructive global war against the Allied Powers -- one of which was the Soviet Union.
That brings us to October 25, 1917, and the beginning of Soviet rule -- according to the Julian calendar then in use in Russia. On that day, the Bolsheviks toppled Russia’s Provisional Government (which had replaced the Czar in February), and proclaimed the birth of the Soviet Union. A civil war followed, which ended when the Red Army took Vladivostok -- on October 25, 1922.
Though the Soviet Union would become America’s ally in World War II, the two superpowers spent the Cold War that followed as bitter adversaries, coming to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. That showdown produced a dramatic, public confrontation at the United Nations when U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson presented photographic evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, and challenged his Soviet counterpart, Valerian Zorin:
Stevenson: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed, and is placing, medium and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don’t wait for the translation - yes or no?
Zorin: I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and therefore I do not wish to answer a question that is put to me in the fashion in which a prosecutor does. In due course, sir, you will have your reply.
Stevenson: You are in a court of world opinion right now, and you can answer yes or no…
Zorin: You will have your answer in due course.
Stevenson: I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that’s your decision.
The Soviets ultimately backed down, of course, and removed their missiles from Cuba. And the date of that unforgettable exchange at the U.N.? As you might have guessed by now, it was October 25, 1962 -- 45 years ago today.
Fidel Castro allowed the Soviets to put their missiles in Cuba in part because he feared a U.S. invasion. That never happened, but years later, the United States did invade another Caribbean island nation -- Grenada -- on October 25, 1983.
We’re back in New York, and we look forward to having you join us for tonight’s broadcast.
