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- NATION, Page 35American NotesEAST-WESTRed Meets Crimson
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- Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government played host to
- an unusual crop of students last week. Twenty-eight senior Soviet
- military officers -- generals, admirals and colonels -- assembled
- for a two-week crash course on the relationship between the armed
- forces and the civilian government in the U.S. "Democracy is not
- an easy form of government for military professionals," said
- General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We
- subordinate ourselves totally to the will of the people and their
- elected representatives."
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- The failed Soviet coup nearly dismantled the conference. The
- invitation was accepted last March by Soviet Defense Minister
- Dmitri Yazov, who became one of the coup organizers. Yazov was
- subsequently yanked from power, but the military men still made
- the trip. During their classes younger members of the group tended
- to accept the American explanation of recent world events. Older
- ones stuck with harder ideological positions. Such differences did
- not prevent the entire group from jumping up to do the "wave" at a
- Red Sox baseball game in their final week.
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