Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

people exactly know what actually went on in those years, but in
both cities the commemorations have turned into real annual festivals.
There is much more in the Netherlands that reminds people of
its glorious past.
My country has often been described as a satisfied nation with well
established cultural and democratic traditions. Whether this still is
the case, is another matter. And, I have to admit that during my
school years the colonial past of the Netherlands and the oppressive
methods used in Indonesia were not really debated, which
would of course have created a less heroic picture.
I grew up in freedom and this was the essential ingredient of the
historical awareness my generation developed. This was strengthened
by the attention devoted in our education to the horrors of
Nazism and the communist domination of Eastern Europe that followed
it. We became very conscious of the dangers of the Cold
War and the nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads
made a lasting impression.
A lot changed, at least for my generation, with the Vietnam War
which showed that not only the Soviet Union was imperialistic.
Although I was not personally engaged in the anti war movement,
that episode changed my view of the world and made me believe
that not only Russia was responsible for the tensions in the world
and that both the Warsaw Pact and NATO were a problem. It was
the confrontation between these two military alliances that became
a dominant theme in my work and activities. I became adviser to
the Labour Party’s national parliamentary group and worked on foreign
affairs and security issues. In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded
Afghanistan and this military aggression became a turning point in
Cold War relations. Many countries boycotted the Olympics in
Moscow; there was a lot of discussion about the need to rearm in
the light of Moscow’s aggressive policies. Détente seemed over. I
found it all frightening. History took a wrong turn with proposals to
deploy new missile systems on both sides in Europe. After some
hesitation my party took a leading role in the opposition against
these deployments and the issue dominated our work. We were
not alone as hundreds of thousand people protested in Amsterdam
and The Hague against the missiles.
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