Class News

Tony Lee ’64, John More ’64, others support Ukraine

March 1, 2022

With the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces on February 24, many Yale classmates wrote and posted their concern and support. Tony Lee and John More, lifelong antiwar leaders, were in the lead.

Tony Lee wrote: “I pray for the Ukrainian people, and all others in distress tonight.” As Howard Gillette wrote in his book Class Divide: Yale ’64 and the Conflicted Legacy of the Sixties, “In 1982, Tony Lee quit his job as the CFO of a large construction company to volunteer full-time for ‘Beyond War’ and set off to organize Massachusetts.

The [organization] promoted that war was obsolete and that people had to learn to resolve conflicts without violence.”

John More ’64 added the Ukrainian flag to his Facebook profile and posted: “Looking forward to tomorrow’s service at St. John's Church in Lafayette Square tomorrow. Prayers for Ukraine.”John, a lifetime soccer fan, posted, “Excellent article condemning FIFA, the Mafia of Soccer and lover of Putin.” John also posted photos of the Empire State Building and the St. Louis Arch lit up in Ukraine’s colors.

Dan Pollack ’64 posted a YouTube video from 2015 analyzing the Ukraine situation, featuring Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago. Mearsheimer characterizes himself as an international relations theorist and, more specifically, a realist, meaning that he believes that the great powers dominate the international system and they constantly engage in security competition with each other, which sometimes leads to war. For years, Mearsheimer has argued that the U.S., in pushing to expand NATO eastward and establishing friendly relations with Ukraine, has increased the likelihood of war. See his 2015 talk below, titled “The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis.”

Bob Hannah ’64 replied, “Very interesting!” Dan added: “Why does Ukraine matter?”

• 1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
• 2nd in Europe and 10th in the world in titanium ore reserves;
• 2nd in the world in explored reserves of manganese ores;
• 2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world;
• 2nd in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;
• 3rd in Europe (13th in the world) in shale gas reserves;
• 4th in the world in the total value of natural resources;
• 7th in the world in coal reserves

Nancy Upper (surviving spouse of Dennis Upper ’64) wrote: “Regarding man’s tendency toward destruction, the late great biologist, naturalist, and proponent of biodiversity E.O. Wilson (a specialist in the study of ants) said that if insects disappear, the world will not go on as before. If Man disappears, the Earth will gradually return to the verdant, healthy, biologically diverse planet it once was.”

Candy Johnston (spouse of Waldo Johnston ’64) posted a selfie on Facebook wearing the colors of Ukraine in support.

The Boston Zoom group discussed Ukraine in January. Afterwards, Neil Hoffmann ’64 emailed: “Dave Lindsey may be surprised to hear that I largely agree with his foreign-policy positions, and our dilemma in Ukraine. We have made our own bed, as usual, and it certainly may be possible to pull back NATO maneuvers and exercises from Eastern Europe as a concession to Putin if he will pull back from Ukraine. Anyway, you all are much more interesting than anything I see on PBS, MSNBC, BBC.”

Tony Lavely ’64 emailed: “One of the high-school students in Georgia whom I interviewed this year emailed:

“I think Tom Friedman is completely right when he says we’ve never seen anything like this before. A lot of people online have drawn parallels to Stalin and Hitler, but they lived in a time when trench warfare just became outdated and new technologies were just being introduced. We have so many more weapons at our disposal — not just physically but electronically. I remember a teacher of mine telling me that the next large-scale war will include cyber warfare. I've seen a lot of people, especially on TikTok and Twitter, not take any of this conflict seriously, and it's quite concerning to me as an individual, seeing people joke around about a rather serious and deadly clash. I do think if in the future the United States declares war on Russia, things will take a turn for the worse. Meaning it will likely start World War III — but of course I'm just an 18-year-old looking from the outside. And if it does escalate to an all-out war, I do think it may end in mutually assured destruction — a term we have all been paranoid about since the introduction of nuclear weapons. There's a short story by Ray Bradbury titled “There Will Come Soft Rains” and it's about the aftermath of a nuclear bomb on a technologically advanced city. Bradbury wrote this in 1950 during the Cold War, but there are so many parallels to our current situation.”

Sam Francis ’64 added: “When I read in the Bradbury piece about ‘the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn’ and the other family members including ‘a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down,’ it made me think of Pompeii and the bodies of its citizens frozen in time in contorted positions at the moment of their deaths, some trying to shield their faces with their hands, one mother trying to shield her child. I heartily recommend the book Pompeii by Robert Harris. It’s a work of historical fiction which is true to the history but brings it to life. Hiroshima must have been something like that.”

Paul Ruden ’64 re-posted an Instagram by Ukraine’s first lady: “I will not have panic and tears. I will be calm and confident. My children are looking at me. I will be next to them and my husband. And with you.”

There was swift assembly by students on the Yale campus in support of Ukraine. You can follow this issue by subscribing to the Yale Daily News’s excellent coverage.

Bob Hilgendorf emailed:

We are facing the most significant series of events since WWII in my opinion. Not clear how it will play out. Certainly a catastrophe for Ukraine and its people in the short term and probably also for Russia and the West and their relationship for some time to come. Also with China now more aligned with Russia than it has been in the past, we have allowed our adversaries to align — never a good result in any competitive situation.

First to the issue of moral “right” in international politics. In practicing law I always looked at the equities first. Could I fashion a position that would give my client an “equitable” high ground. If not, I would not take the case. Then the legal strategies had to be designed to win in court or in negotiation. I suggest that the same approach be taken in foreign policy when possible, and particularly in the Ukraine situation.  Our position had to be designed to take the moral high ground but then the complicated issue of strategy and policy would have to be worked out with the NATO allies so as to avoid a shooting war in Ukraine.

It may be “morally right” to support Ukraine as an independent nation free from Russian domination but not at the expense of Ukraine being destroyed by war. So support might have taken the form of the US privately advising the Ukrainian President he should disclaim any interest in joining NATO for the near or midterm future. He should understand that the West would not come to his aid with a no-fly zone or troops and that, given that he is surrounded by Russian troops, a deal needed to be struck. That should be communicated to the Russians. And probably a NATO representative should privately assure the Russians the same thing. Nothing good could come from turning Ukraine into a NATO country with the Article 5 assurances of mutual defense. That is simply an invitation to future conflict with no winners. And Ukraine should be urged to work out some kind of settlement with Russia that dealt with the Eastern Provinces. As I understand it there was a Minsk Accord that was signed but never followed. Finally, we should have approached China privately and sought their concurrence in the proposition that, if Russia invaded despite these efforts by us and NATO, they would support a world-wide sanction of Russia and they would not bail them out in the financial sector.

Would this approach have avoided this nasty war? We had plenty of warning that it was going to be brutal given the Russian rhetoric and massing of troops. Did we try "deep diplomacy?" I doubt it, given the huge divide in our country between Republicans and Democrats and what I guess was the Democrats’ assessment that just maintaining a refusal to shut the door on NATO expansion into Ukraine was good politics for Biden, whose hand needed upgrading before the mid-terms. Selensky was not strong enough to manage the situation. The American people were not ready be part of any war in Ukraine and fundamentally it was not of vital interest to the US to avoid this war so long as our economy could weather it and we could take the opportunity to slap down Putin, Russia, and the oligarchs. Sadly, the Ukrainian people are the victims. As in most wars, it is the civilians and the young soldiers who bear the brunt of the suffering.  

In sum, I do think history will hold us substantially accountable for allowing these events to unfold in the way they are headed. We needed to do more on the front end than we did.  

The Yale School of Management posted an analysis of American companies that have withdrawn from Ukraine. Here's the list.

Yale Alumni College offered a course “Understanding the Russia-Ukraine war: Origins, course, and consequences” on March 9 that may now be available online.

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Phil Anderson, who is a member of Vocal Majority, a choral group in Texas, posted a video of the group performing the Ukrainian National Anthem.

Phil emailed “Pray for Ukraine, pray for peace. We have a daughter-in-law and granddaughter with extended family in Kherson.”

Here’s the video of Vocal Majority singing the Ukraine national anthem.

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Kudos to two Yalies who are putting themselves in harm’s way to bring us real-time reports from Ukraine: Anderson Cooper ‘89 (Political Science) and Clarissa Ward ‘02 (Comparative Literature).