By suggesting that a “minor incursion” into Ukraine would be acceptable, Drew Allen notes, it looks like Joe Biden is colluding with Vladimir Putin. Biden also has a record of collusion on the matter of nuclear weapons, a story that goes back to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

After World War II, Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union occupied approximately half of Europe and set up oppressive communist regimes. In 1953, following the death of Stalin, the Soviets crushed a worker revolt in East Germany and went on to invade Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Under the Brezhnev Doctrine, captive nations were not allowed to escape Soviet rule.

The Soviets deployed massive conventional forces in Europe and maintained a huge nuclear arsenal. The prospect of mutually assured destruction (MAD) held off the prospect of a first strike by either side. That changed under President Ronald Reagan.

He proposed a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) a high-tech system that could intercept incoming Soviet missiles. Democrats derided SDI as “Star Wars” and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) colluded with Soviet boss Yuri Andropov in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Reagan. By 1991 the USSR collapsed, and that troubled the composite character David Garrow described in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama.

As Paul Kengor noted in The Communist, Obama’s beloved Frank Marshall Davis—the African American “Frank” in Dreams from My Father—spent most of his life defending the all-white dictatorship of the Soviet Union. So the composite character tended to be uncritical of communist regimes. In 2008 he gained election with a promise to fundamentally transform the United States of America.

In 2009, his first year in office, Obama scrapped a missile defense deal for U.S. allies Poland and the Czech Republic. This was a direct benefit to Russia, still hostile to the United States, and with its massive nuclear arsenal still in place. For Russia, American missile defense was a big problem.

In 2012, President Obama told Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that “missile defense” could “be solved, but it’s important for him [Putin] to give me space.” After his election, the U.S. president said, “I will have more flexibility.” Medvedev responded, “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”

So Obama and Vladimir Putin had quite a collaboration going on. In a similar style, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s famous “reset” gave Russia the most highly intrusive nuclear weapons inspection program the United States had ever accepted.

“We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered,” said Clinton after meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in 2015. Clinton told Lavrov that missile defense was “another area for deep cooperation between our countries.” Vice President Joe Biden was of similar mind, right from the start.

The Democrats’ presidential candidate in 1972 was George McGovern, whose position on “arms control” was essentially the same as that of the Soviets. America was to blame for the Cold War, McGovern believed, so the Soviets must arm and America must limit. The American people didn’t think so. McGovern suffered what the New York Times called, “the worst defeat of any Democratic presidential candidate in history.” On the other hand, Joe Biden won his election to the Senate, where he represented McGovern’s policies.

In 1972, Biden decried “endless warfare, reliance on false obligations of global power, overt and covert manipulation of foreign regimes, standing as the sentinel of the status quo are not our true styles.” Nothing about aggression from the USSR, then on the march around the globe, and still in control of Eastern Europe.

During the 1980s, Senator Biden supported the nuclear freeze movement, a Soviet-backed initiative that would have locked in communist military advantages. Biden also opposed the Reagan defense buildup and Strategic Defense Initiative, both of which, when put into effect, worked to set the USSR back on its heels. For the Delaware Democrat, living under the threat of a Soviet first strike was entirely acceptable.

In 2010, Vice President Biden said, “The spread of nuclear weapons is the greatest threat facing the country and, I would argue, facing humanity.” Nothing about the spread of tyranny under Stalinist dictatorships, or the threat of Islamic terrorism, which had already struck down thousands in the American homeland.

“Let me say as clearly and categorically as I can,” Biden said in 2014, “America does not and will not recognize Russian occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea.” The attempted annexation succeeded, and Biden duly accepted it. At the same time, he opposed American efforts to shore up defenses against Russia.

“Given our non-nuclear capabilities and the nature of today’s threats,” Biden said in 2017, “it’s hard to envision a plausible scenario in which the first use of nuclear weapons by the United States would be necessary. Or make sense.” That didn’t apply to Russia.

In 2018, Putin boasted a new nuclear weapon that “can attack any target, through the North or South Pole, it is a powerful weapon and no missile defense system will be able to withstand.” Putin also announced a cruise missile system that can “avoid all interceptors.” Joe Biden kept rather quiet about Putin’s new weapons, but he did perceive a greater threat from President Trump.

“The possibility that the Trump Administration may resume nuclear explosive weapons testing in Nevada is as reckless as it is dangerous,” Biden said in May 2020. “We have not tested a device since 1992; we don’t need to do so now.”

In August that same year, Biden said, “I will restore American leadership on arms control and nonproliferation as a central pillar of U.S. global leadership.” That doubtless caught the attention of Putin, who began massing troops on the Ukraine border in April 2021.

On January 26, Air Force Magazine ran a story headlined “55 Democrats Urge Biden to Adopt ‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy.” The Democrats include Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and House Armed Services Committee members Andrew Kim (D-N.J.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and John Garamendi (D-Calif.).

Beyond the no-first-use policy, these 55 Democrats want to stop deployment of the W76-2 low-yield Trident submarine warhead, and the development of a new nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile. The 55 Democrats, led by Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), also question the necessity of new nuclear weapons systems. In the style of McGovern, the onus is on the United States, not Russia.

“Putin Order Puts Russian Nuke Deterrent Force on High Alert,” the Washington Times announced on Sunday. Vladimir Putin is a big admirer of Stalin and also a KGB veteran. As Ukrainian-born comic Yakov Smirnoff says, the KGB will throw a man off a roof to hit the guy they really want. True to form, Putin invades Ukraine but what he really wants is for the United States to reduce its missile defense capabilities.

A stunt man for Obama, the addled Joe Biden also represents the second coming of George McGovern. That means it’s springtime for Putin, as Mel Brooks might say, winter for Ukraine and the USA. That means bombs falling from the sky again, maybe in regions far from Ukraine. Should one Russian nuclear bomb manage to “solve” U.S. missile defense and land stateside, a famous poster from the 1960s offers Americans a plan of action:

1) Stay clear of all windows.

2) Keep hands free of glass, bottles, cigarettes, etc.

3) Stand away from bar, tables, orchestra, equipment and furniture.

4) Loosen necktie, unbutton coat and any other restrictive clothing.

5) Remove glasses, empty pockets of all sharp objects such as pens, pencils, etc.

6) Immediately upon seeing the brilliant flash of nuclear explosion, bend over and place your head firmly between your legs.

7) Then kiss your ass goodbye.