Excellent, excellent post. Those of you too young to remember the dark, dangerous years of the 1970s cannot imagine how close we came to the fall of a global night -- or how bright a beacon of hope Mr. Solzshenitsyn was.
The tide turned the next year; with the ascension of Ronald Reagan to the leadership of the GOP and of Margaret Thatcher to the post of Prime Minister of the UK, the United States, the British and the West began to awaken and arm itself against the Soviet bear that was by then within our gates. That awakening -- and the victory of Soviet communism that followed -- was in no small part the legacy of Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn.
One is reminded by this stirring speech that the meaning of the name "Alexander" is "defender of mankind"...
At present, some western voices already have spoken of obtaining protection from a third power against aggression in the next world conflict, if there is one; in this case the shield would be China. But I would not wish such an outcome to any country in the world. First of all, it is again a doomed alliance with evil; also, it would grant the United States a respite, but when at a later date China with its billion people would turn around armed with American weapons, America itself would fall prey to a genocide similar to the one perpetrated in Cambodia in our days.
And yet - no weapons, no matter how powerful, can help the West until it overcomes its loss of willpower. In a state of psychological weakness, weapons become a burden for the capitulating side. To defend oneself, one must also be ready to die; there is little such readiness in a society raised in the cult of material well-being.
The above is nothing short of awesomely prophetic.