It has long been said that people see their entire lives flash before their eyes at the moment of death. The case of Swiss geologist Albert Heim is well known. One hundred and thirty years ago, following a mountain-climbing accident, which he survived, Heim reported seeing his life replayed as he was falling. Hollywood has often resorted to this intriguing phenomenon as a plot device. Think Bruce Willis in "Armageddon" and Tom Cruise in "Vanilla Sky."

In case you are concerned: No, I did not have a near-death experience; thank God I am in good health, and you won't see me climbing a mountain anytime soon.

But I did see my life flash before my eyes, in a sort of way, last week at the Library of Congress, where I was conducting research using newspapers spanning the 1960s through the early 2000s. I saw dozens of news stories and op-eds about world events that made me reflect on how much great-power geopolitics have changed during the last six decades — and on the ways in which they haven't changed.

Given the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and its potential spread into a global conflagration, and my practice as a syndicated columnist, I was particularly drawn to Cold War-era op-eds commenting on military aggressions by what was then known as the Soviet Union.

A June 1976 op-ed by John Chamberlain entitled "Do Russians Have the Ultimate Weapon?" reported that the Soviets had aimed microwave beams at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and that according to the Boston Globe those beams "caused or at least aggravated" an ailment affecting U.S. Ambassador Walter J. Stossel Jr. The op-ed quoted from a chilling report by an unnamed, retired, high-ranking army officer on the subject of "psychotronic weapons," which if aimed at a human being would — this is terrifying — "disarrange the life-sustaining portion of his biological system."

Intrigued about the subject, I searched the internet and found a 2012 NBC News story on psychotronic weapons, which, at the time, Vladimir Putin was touting as the future of warfare. So-called zombie ray guns being developed, were, according to researchers, capable of producing "microwave hearing," "a sensation of buzzing, clicking or hissing in the head." The article quoted the British Daily Mail saying that those weapons "could be used against Russia's enemies and, perhaps, its own dissidents by the end of the decade."

In 2016, reports began to surface of a mysterious set of symptoms afflicting U.S. and Canadian embassy personnel stationed at Havana, hence the disease's name: Havana syndrome. U.S. officials have since blamed Russia for those attacks and others against U.S. officials and military personnel stationed around the world, even in Washington, D.C.

The Daily Mail's prediction materialized and Chamberlain's question about Russia having the ultimate weapon seems to have been finally answered.

Thirty-two years before the United States invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 2001 with the object of toppling the Taliban regime, Soviet troops crossed into Afghan territory to prop up a pro-USSR government. They remained there a little over nine years.

With the benefit of hindsight, we know that the Soviet-Afghan War ended disastrously for the Soviets, costing them over 14,000 lives and the equivalent of 50 billion dollars. Historians and other observers agree that the war deeply hurt the Soviet Union's international standing and that it was one of the primary factors leading to its implosion in 1991.

But U.S. journalists commenting at the time lacked the benefit of hindsight and, much like those of us who are commenting on the current Russian War in Ukraine, could only speculate about the Afghan conflict's future course and ultimate ramifications.

In February 1980, just weeks into the Afghan War, American journalist Kingsbury Smith wrote columns with alarming titles like "Is War Imminent With Russia?" and "If It Comes to Nuclear War." They reflected contemporary concerns in the Carter White House, the State Department and the Pentagon about what at the time seemed to be a first step in a new era of aggressive Soviet expansionism.

Just as today's analysts express concern about Putin's intention to further expand into Moldova, Poland and beyond, their 1980 predecessors feared Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's further expansionist goals of controlling the Persian Gulf oil route and taking over Pakistan.

Smith quoted President Jimmy Carter stating that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was "the most serious threat to world peace since World War II" and that his administration was committed to "protect(ing) the security of Pakistan, involving military forces, if necessary." According to another contemporary columnist, Nicholas von Hoffman, the dreadful phrase "World War III" was "on the lips of people making serious prophecy."

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

To be continued.

Luis Martinez-Fernandez is the author of "Revolutionary Cuba: A History" and "Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba." Readers can reach him at LMF_Column@yahoo.com. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www. creators.com.

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