Putin vs. Next Gen

Dear President Putin,

As someone who, at the age of eighteen, patriotically turned in his draft card at the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War, let me tell you that you have just made a colossal blunder by trying to force thousands of young Russian men to fight in Ukraine. Believe me: a quarter of a million young Russians dodging the draft by crossing the border is just the beginning. Protests are spreading from St Petersburg to Dagestan.

Obviously, you are not LBJ or Nixon, Ukraine is not Vietnam, the USA is not Russia, and the 2020s are not the 1960s. Like Kissinger, you are a savvy realpolitik strategist of international diplomacy who is doing what he thinks is in the best interests of his own country. But you are as ignorant as he was about what the next generation thinks of the older generation’s war.

You, Mr. Putin, have just made the same blunder that our government made half a century ago. In a meeting with Kissinger when I was barely in my twenties, I admitted that he had more access to national intelligence and more diplomatic experience than I did. But I told him that I knew my generation better than he did. When I asked him why he thought so many of us believed his war was “morally wrong” and would not fight in it, he complained that my question challenged his integrity, and changed the subject. Yet four decades later, Secretary of State Robert McNamara finally acknowledged it: “We were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why.”

The US government thought it could force young American men, the future leaders of their country, to fight in a war they did not believe in. Similarly, you think you can use threats of imprisonment to force objectors to fight against their will. But the next generation will not back down and obediently do your bidding.

Here’s the bad news: you are wrong. If young Russians can continue to live their lives and find their own way, they may keep their disagreement to themselves. They may act like “good Russians” and support you and your war. But when you ask them to leave home and risk their lives, you will find out that their “support” is shallow, perhaps nonexistent. If you want them to honor your legacy when you have retired or are in your grave, you need to stop this war now.

Please do not take comfort in the fact that you have dictatorial power. It is true that without our checks and balances, your presidency can wield government force more ruthlessly than your American counterparts. But today you are asking your young men to fight in the internet era when government lies are much more easily disproved. Furthermore, you are not asking them to kill another race with another faith and another language. You are asking them to kill men and women who look, believe, and talk just like them. Ho Chi Minh could not address the American people in fluent English. Zelenskyy speaks regularly to the Russian people in their own language and — no offense intended — with far more eloquence and emotional force than you.

As in America, you can find economically desperate or socially isolated young men who can be enticed to put on a uniform. But don’t fool yourself. The under-achieving, under-educated segment is not the next generation of Russian leaders. Just as the student body leaders of the one hundred major universities in America signed a letter opposing the Vietnam War, so are the future leaders of Russia against this war. So if you do not want the future to leave you in the dust, get out of Ukraine.

I also hope you don’t make the same mistake your American government officials did. They thought our opposition to the war meant that we were “communist sympathizers” or some other kind of “traitor.” I am sure some of your advisers are telling you that young Russians objecting to your war are lacking in patriotism and loyalty and are “pro-West.” The truth, Mr. President, is much more troubling for you: it is because they love mother Russia that they hate your war.

I don’t expect you to follow in McNamara’s footsteps and admit you made a “mistake.” I know that is not what tough-talking politicians do. So I encourage you to stop while you are ahead. Instead, declare victory. Proclaim that you occupy Donbas. Take pride in your hard-won bargaining chips. In the poker game of negotiations, you have some leverage to get Ukraine to do what you want. But those chips have value only if you play the game. They are worthless if you blow up the table.

Just as the military draft ignited the protests, further escalation will only add fuel to the fire. As a member of your generation, take my advice: before it is too late, listen to the next one.