“The West has failed so far to seize the moment to shape the history of the next half-century,” Nixon wrote. “If Yeltsin fails, the prospects for the next 50 years will turn grim. The Russian people will not turn back to Communism. But a new, more dangerous despotism based on extremist Russian nationalism will take power … If a new despotism prevails, everything gained in the great peaceful revolution of 1991 will be lost. War could break out in the former Soviet Union as the new despots use force to restore the ‘historical borders’ of Russia.”
