"The Americans” has returned to FX for its fifth season and a lot of ink is being wasted, as in the New York Times, that the Cold War era series is a lot more relevant these days because Donald Trump is president. The TV show that depicts how the Soviet Union was really out to get us is a great historical document since a lot of people were in denial about that fact during the Cold War. What the show has to do with Donald Trump is something that is hard to fathom, except that the writers of such essays hate the president, much as they hated Reagan, and want to attach his name to the bleak story lines of Soviet espionage.
The fifth season starts in the summer of 1984 with things not looking good for the USSR. While America enjoys bump crops of amber waves of grain, the Soviet Union is experiencing blighted fields, empty supermarkets, and long lines for putrid food. The USSR has not descended into a socialist caused famine like modern Venezuela only because many tons of American grain are being shipped their way.
Naturally, the Kremlin being paranoid and unwilling to accept that Reagan would sell it grain to keep other human beings, albeit under the iron boot of communism, from starving, believe that something nefarious is going on. Apparently, The Americans intend to use a bioweapon to taint the grain, wiping out large swaths of Soviet citizens, and thus triumphing over Mother Russia.
Philip and Elizabeth, the latter a fanatical Soviet nationalist, are set on the case, which looks like will consume the series. The idea of a biowar Holocaust is an example of projection as it was something the Soviets would have done to the West given half a chance. The show is suggesting that this kind of paranoia drove Soviet aggression as much as the desire to spread communism across the planet and put down the capitalist nations.
The Kremlin leadership touted the idea that the Americans wanted to kill them all, much as the Nazis desired, as a way to keep its grip on power. The tragedy is that our two KGB spies have spent their lives committing crimes, taking and ruining lives, all for a lie.
