Thirty-five years ago this week: Colorado Republican activist Mort Marks told The Colorado Statesman that he “didn’t trust the Soviet Union’s latest ‘peace’ proposal” in which the USSR proposed that both sides eliminate their medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

According to the terms of the USSR’s proposal, over 1,000 missiles would be eliminated from Europe, but both Europe and the USSR would be allowed to retain 100 specific warheads.

Marks argued that the “peace proposal” was coming from a country that in 1956 had crushed anti-soviet revolutions in Hungary, and “still dictates Hungary’s politics by maintaining their armed fight over the people. This is the same ‘peace loving’ country that is fighting a ruthless conventional war against the people of Afghanistan,” he added.

There was more to this proposal, Marks argued, than a good-natured desire for peace. Marks argued that Soviet’s long-term aims were not to balance the world’s power but “as a means to escape from the restraints that [United States] power places on them.”

“We are now seeing the polished and articulate Soviet propaganda apparatus, led by Gorbachev,” Marks said, “preaching the virtues of a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing, a comprehensive test ban and a limited test ban treaty.” 

Marks further argued that to put faith in the Soviet Union’s peace plan would depend on international verification of their compliance. Without such verification, he said, the treaty would be nothing but a trap.

“These nuclear missiles are a concrete symbol of our commitment to Europe,” Mark said. “A commitment that for 40 years has succeeded in preventing any nuclear wars from happening anywhere in the world. We must therefore retain our nuclear strength in Europe because the free world’s security … is inseparable from our peace-keeping defense system that we maintain there.”

Twenty-five years ago: Cliff Sams, former candidate for çhair of the Arapahoe County Republican Party, surmised that he would have to “watch what I think from now on.”

Sams’ comment came after verifiable evidence that he’d decided to run for secretary of the Colorado Republican Party. The Colorado GOP confirmed his candidate registration and went further to confirm that he was the only candidate for the office at that date.

Only candidate or not, Sams said he was overwhelmed by people’s interest in his candidacy.

“Two weeks ago I asked somebody a simple question: What exactly does the state party secretary do anyway? The next thing I know people are calling me up and either yelling at me or encouraging me. You’re the third call I’ve gotten today,” he told the Colorado Statesman reporter on the other end of the phone.

Nevertheless, Sams said he hadn’t formally made up his mind. But his interest was growing, he said. With all of the attention that his comments had gotten, he was growing ever more interested in taking the position.

Alas, just a few days later, Sams would find he was no longer the lone wolf in the state secretary race as the GOP rumor mill attested that Adams County GOP activist and former Deputy Secretary of State Carole Pool was also interested in the party position.

Pushed for his level of interest with this new development in mind, Sams said that if, in fact, either Pool or another candidate entered the race then he would reevaluate his desire to campaign for the post despite the fact that he got “along so well with Steve Curtis and Sam Zakhem, candidates for Colorado Republican Party Chairman.

“I like both of these guys,” Sams said. “They’re good guys and I like working with them. I’m on the state central committee anyway, so I’d still be able to help out.”

Indeed the contest for Colorado GOP chair between Curtis and Zakhem had seen a substantial rise in drama in the recent days. In contrast, Barbara Phillips, candidate for state party vice-chairman, was a “study in unruffled serenity” as she was the only announced candidate.

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Gazette.