Cold War memories resurface Pats’ Kraft proves he can be a top diplomat

All the hubbub lately regarding Russian President Vladmir Putin’s pocketing New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring triggered a lot of memories.

Traveling with a group of American big-wigs who met with the Russian leader at Konstantinovsky Palace last Saturday outside of St. Petersburg, Russia, Kraft was as surprised as anyone when the former KGB agent tried the ring on, then slipped it in his pocket.

Although the affable Kraft later claimed that the entire scene was, in actuality, a gift ceremony, speculation was rampant that the so-called misunderstanding might trigger an international incident.

After all, it would take gall of major proportions for the Russian leader to walk off with the huge bobble. Kraft was smooth through all of it, but I couldn’t help thinking about another Russian leader, one who viewed all the glitter and glitz of American society with a considerable amount of disgust and disdain.

Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his podium one day in the early 1960s and told America that “we will bury you.” This contributed to a cold war that lasted between the two nations until Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush helped ease the tensions, and communism in that region fell.

Ironically, it was jewelry of a different kind – female jewelry, in fact – that helped smooth rough edges when Khrushchev and his wife visited President John Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline.

Kennedy, the handsome, athletic Democrat from Massachusetts, was said to be no match for the gruff bully from the Soviet Union. Khrushchev, however, proved to be unable to ward off the charms of the lovely First Lady.

Elegant in her expensive gowns and jewelry, she was the epitome of grace and charm, something right out of the movies, in fact. Pundits even then felt she had a hand in swaying the tide in keeping World War III at bay.

Thank goodness for that.

In those days, fear accompanied the Cold War more than at any other time since World War II.

The Soviet leader’s threats had a hand in the building of many fallout shelters around our nation. Structures which were thought to be strong enough to stand up to the devastation of a nuclear blast were marked with the yellow metal Civil Defense signs. They dotted the region on the sides of buildings such as John Bapst High School in Bangor and were constant reminders of the treacherous times we lived in then.

For young boys in Brewer, Maine, athletic pursuits, however, were not minimized.

The touch football games continued primarily because in Washington we had a vibrant, healthy president, who inspired us to be active. He and his brothers often tossed a football around on the back lawn of the presidential mansion or along the beaches of Hyannisport, Mass., motivation enough to continue playing ourselves.

In fact, JFK championed physical fitness from the moment he and his family first set foot in the White House.

The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports set new standards of excellence for school kids in the United States.

I remember trying to meet the President’s new physical education requirements in our gym classes because from JFK’s perspective, a healthy country was a stronger country.

And so Pats owner Bob Kraft proved to be a bigger diplomat than we gave him credit for after all.

Good thing, too. He let this sleeping giant named Putin lie still, with a very expensive ring on his hand, er, in his pocket.

Pats coach Bill Belichek couldn’t have diagrammed the whole thing any better.

In football vernacular, it was Kraft’s own version of the Statue of Liberty play.

NEWS columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net