One of the most interesting features of my recent trip to America was watching the news. I read a variety of newspapers; the Boston Herald and the Washington Times were blatantly different from their "establishment" counterparts. They were better factually, however they earned looks from commuters which said: "Oh God, you read that?!?"

Most Americans, however, get their news from television. Watching television news was alarming: there was no straight, sober reporting like the BBC. The divergence between networks was minimal. CNN had its correspondent on the Capitol Steps, as did MSNBC. Whenever the fate of the President hung in the balance, fear and tears seemed to be in the correspondents' eyes. The words "President Clinton," were uttered with a reverential tone. The news was all skewered as to what the President'sthoughts were, how he was feeling, how he was doing. In short, I've never seen anything so blatantly biased in all my life. Some networks are less so, but this remains the exception rather than the rule. In order to get any idea of the real story, one had to wait for Matt Drudge.

Meanwhile, the spin goes on. The economy is growing still, the State of the Union, although a nightmarish slumgullion of statist recipes, was well received. The American news seems to say that things are continuing to be rosy. However, this scenario has disturbing echoes in the past. Specifically, there are painful similarities between modern-day America and the late and unlamented USSR.

I have studied the history of the Soviet Union: one of my particular interests is the period 1945-1953, the late Stalin era. During this time, there was a cultural clampdown: Stalin had allowed some cultural freedoms, such as allowing churches to be reopened, during the Second World War. Once the war was over, the top priority was to put everybody back in line.

The popular culture reflected this need as well. Pravda was more bone dry than usual, for example. Films, which were as powerful in the Soviet Union of the 1940s and 1950s as television is today, were an area of particular concern.

There was a film entitled "Padenie Berlina," "The Fall of Berlin," which tried to correct and revise the history of the Second World War. Stalin was in it: seen as infallible genius. The Soviet Union was portrayed as almost a magic kingdom, ruled by a divine man-God. This film was incredibly long: nearly 4 hours. The Soviet Union's supply of technicolour film was sunk into the project, as was the talent of Dmitri Shostakovich, the brilliant composer, who was forced to write the music for the soundtrack.

Watching the television news reminded me in some respects of Padenie Berlina. There is a line where the heroine of the tale states, "Every day, in every way, life is getting better and better," which was a classic line of Stalinist propaganda. The distance between this and the deluge of "good news" on the news is less than people think.

If one reads America's economic data closely, one is led to certain conclusions about how wonderful everything is going: first, it's fueled by a consumer spending boom, that is fueled by easy credit. Second, it's also fueled by high stock prices. Third, those stock prices are overvalued, particularly in internet stocks. The good news is drowning out the structural problems that need to be corrected. Hence Alan Greenspan's warning against "irrational exuberance."

Despite the underlying problems, America is still being sold to itself as a "magic kingdom." As for Clinton being seen as a "divine man-God" -- thankfully, the media has not attained this level of sycophancy yet. However, seeing the newsreaders in America reminded me of another line which the heroine in "Padenie Berlina" says: "To whom do we owe our joy?" And she goes on, ad nauseam, about Comrade Stalin.

"Padenie Berlina" was a box office flop: few Soviet citizens bothered to see it, although many in Eastern Europe, particularly the East Germans, were forced to see this film. Americans willingly subject themselves to media propaganda each and every day, or they are indifferent to its implications.

However, the propaganda is masking something more disturbing, as was seen in the State of the Union speech: the speech itself was unremarkable, but the programme it laid out should have brought howls of protest from a nation which has long resisted Socialism. The government promised to expand its activities, its spending, its involvement in the economy. Yet it was cheered. "Every day, in every way, life is getting..." -- this was the official line.

A long time ago, I had a teacher who once told me that the East was moving West and the West was moving East. I asked him for a clarification.

"We see China embracing capitalism; yet at the same time, America's government continues to grow, and its functions get more intrusive and complex."

I doubted the total veracity of his view until now. It seems that while America won the Cold War against the USSR abroad, the Soviet Union's traits have been showing themselves on American soil. Perhaps what took 70 years of effort and pain to destroy is not dead; it seems in some respects, the Soviet Union is all too alive and well.

It is possible to deny it still: the legendary midnight knock on the door is not yet a reality. However, if Americans acquiesce to these trends, the threat of that midnight awakening will not be checked: indeed, this horror will come ever closer.