The speech is so sobering and self-aware. I wish I saw more of this side when I studied the cold war in high school. There was always a bit of, "wow people from the past were so blind and naive."
I remember the first political news, perhaps, that I really remember mattering (and understanding that it mattered) was the fall of the Berlin wall. I mean, I was like nine, so I didn't fully understand why it mattered, but I understood that it did matter.
But, I've always been into history, and I read a lot about it later.
Whenever I read about the period I'm overcome with just how quickly humanity developed restraint.
If we had any war in the second half of the 20th century that was at all like either of the major wars in the first half of the 20th century, humanity would be no more. If we had leaders of major powers in the second half of the 20th century who were as brutal and stupid as the leaders of the first half of the 20th century, we would not exist.
In just a few years, we went from expending all of our power, pouring every last ounce of effort and ingenuity into killing the enemy to the firing of MacAurther.
It's amazing, and really life-afferming in a lot of ways. Whatever you think of human nature, the fact that when faced with the actual choice, our leaders hesitated is huge. They resisted. rationality won out, and we continue to exist in this increasingly unlikely world.