Posted on 04/09/2016 7:58:42 PM PDT by astrat7
In my previous post (for the Lowy Interpreter) I labeled the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump, a 'Nixon-Kissinger realist'. Since then, Trump has provided a detailed account of his worldview in an interview with David Sanger and Maggie Haberman from the New York Times.
It affirms my previous description and here I expand on what I mean.
Nixon became president in the shadow of Vietnam; the 'domino theory' had been discredited, the anti-war movement was gathering momentum, and the costs of becoming embroiled in wars that did not affect core American interests was keenly felt. In 1969, Nixon delivered a speech in Guam, and during the Q&A summarized what became known as 'the Nixon Doctrine':
I want to be sure that our policies in the future, all over the world, in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the rest, reduce American involvement. One of assistance, yes, assistance in helping them solve their own problems, but not going in and just doing the job ourselves simply because that is the easier way to do it.
This sent shockwaves through America's allies. Here in Australia, Nixon's speech, combined with Britain's retreat from east of the Suez, forced a maturation in strategic thinking and led to the development of 'self-reliance' as an Australian defense concept.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Your link doesn’t go to the article.
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos...
Yeah, the domino theory was really discredited.
Let’s remember that the Korean war had preceded this too.
North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos...
We should have gone in and literally kicked the snot out of the North in Vietnam. We should have been in and out of there in a year, with very few casualties.
It is interesting, however I don’t think the Domino theory was discredited. It was just rendered inoperable.
Trump represents what we need in Washington right now, however imperfect a representative he happens to be.
Very true. I couldn’t trust or tolerate Nixon.
It was Eisenhower who first used the Domino illustration in relation to Southeast Asia. He had more in mind than just Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The fear was that if those quickly fell then Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, even the Philippines would be the next targets. If it did nothing else making Vietnam the red line gave these other countries a chance to strengthen themselves.
As for why we had no strategy to win the war that blame belongs to JFK, McNamara, Maxwell Taylor and Lyndon Johnson. They put politics first and marginalized the military. HR McMaster’s “Dereliction of Duty” is the book to read on the subject.
If you look at what the media is trying to do to Trump today, and to a lesser extent Cruz, you have to realize they were just devilish to Nixon.
Nixon was a fairly decent president IMO. Yes he did some things that were Leftist in nature. In those days we weren’t as in tune as we are today, so he got away with it.
If you look at some of the people he ran against, than heaven he won. McGovern?
Also, if you look at what Nixon was guilty of as compared to what Clinton and his wife were involved in, Nixon was a piker.
One example. Coleson had one FBI file. Hillary and staff had over a thousand. Coleson had to spend time in prison. Hillary wasn’t even charged.
There was instance after instance after instance like this Nixon vs Clinton.
Look at how the media fixated on Nixon as if he was evil, and then look at how they gave the Clintons and Obama passes on everything.
Do you think Nixon would have been installed without providing documents to prove he was a citizen?
So not to take you personally to task, but I know Nixon got a very raw deal.
The link posted w the article went to the National Interest mag. website, not directly to the article, but after doing a search there, I found the direct link to the article:
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/donald-trump-nixon-kissinger-realist-15707
I don’t take Kennedy to task on that, because although he got us in a bit, Johnson was Mr. Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and then a micro manager from the Oval Office.
MacNamera should have gone to prison IMO. During the Carter years he started surfacing as an elder statesman advisor. I wanted to punch the guy’s lights out when he’d do that.
At any rate, I agree with your thoughts on other nations, and the U. S. shoring some of them up.
And while we’re on the subject, even today China is starting to move down into that region to cause trouble. They are expansionist and plan on occupying that whole region IMO.
At any rate, thanks for the response.
Thank you...have not posted article in a while:)
IMO...Nixon was not a bad president.
I agree...it was just that an agreed balance of power stale mate had been reached. Then the aspect of mutually assured destruction and the supposed “Fall” of communism reset the chess board.
“Dereliction of Duty”
I’ve been watching “The Road to Pearl Harbor” on AmazonPrime. I was surprised to find out that Ho Chi Minh tried to approach Wilson at Versailles. And I seem to remember, could be wrong, that he later tried to approached the US after WWII offering us naval bases, but was rebuffed because of France.
Thank you...
The usual leftist historical revisionists have always excoriated Nixon, because he managed to end the horrible war messes the previous administrations had wrought.
Kennedy and Johnson, mostly Johnson, were the warmongering idiots, but of course, the conventional twisted wisdom now, is that the Republican, Nixon caused the whole thing.
As mind boggling insane as it sounds to those old enough to have lived through that time period, the combined prevailing “wisdom” of the under forty, brainwashed, idiot population “feels” Nixon started the war, as opposed to being the President responsible for ending it.
Those who lived through the Vietnam years understand how evil, deceitful and insane the left and particularly the media can be. They literally forced Indochina to fall because they wanted it. The New York Times portrayed our South Vietnamese allies in a manner that can only be called racist.
After the South Vietnamese were cut off and bravely fought off successive communist attacks at An Loc, the NYT wrote that An Loc proved “even a rat will fight when cornered”.
If you know what the left did then you understand that they need to be defeated not reasoned with.
You’re right, I remember that. Nixon (with help of Kissinger and Rumsfeld) was brilliant in Foreign Affairs.
Also, Nixon resigned from office rather than “put the country through the trauma of impeachment.” I don’t believe that was a cop-out, I think he had integrity and really cared about his country.
He also refused to make a big stink out of the election of 1960. There were irregularities and he knew it.
He refused to pull an Al Gore. And frankly, he probably should have.
I agree with your comments. I will say that Goldwater had gone belly up on him, so he didn’t he could prevail.
Boy, did we get a lesson in civics with Clinton, which really clarified how decent a person Nixon and the Republican party was in his day, and how corrupt and disgusting the Democrat party and the Clintons were in their day.
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