Cold War

Eisenhower And Reagan Commitment To Internationalism Being Rejected By Donald Trump And “America First” Extremism!

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The Republican Party before World War II was dominated by America First Isolationism, led by Ohio Senator Robert Taft, “Mr Conservative Republican”, and Michigan Senator Arthur Vandenberg.

However, Vandenberg abandoned isolationism with the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union after World War II, but with Taft still pursuing isolationism.

But in 1952, when Taft sought the Presidency, he was stopped by World War II hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was able to shift American foreign policy to support of the international community, including support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and commitment to fighting Communist expansion around the world.

The majority of Republicans who pursued bipartisanship in foreign policy continued, and reached a new peak under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and with the Presidencies of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.

However, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan provoked the emergence of a strong opposition to the policy of interventionism, and also led to those who started to see the Russian Federation that followed the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991 as not a nation to be seen as “the enemy”.

Donald Trump became the leader of the attack on the interventionist past of the Republican Party from 1952-2016. Now, many Republicans in Congress back Trump on his isolationist bent, including his Vice Presidential running mate, JD Vance.

This is a dangerous trend, and cozying up to Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation with their war in Ukraine is an alarm bell in the middle of the night, as accepting authoritarianism is a trend toward Fascism!

NATO Has 75th Anniversary, Crucial Alliance Threatened By Donald Trump!

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NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was created 75 years ago on April 4, 1949.

It protected 13 European nations, Canada, and the United States in the emerging Cold War with the Soviet Union, which had occupied Eastern European countries by that date.

Today, NATO has 32 nations in its alliance, and they are the bulwark against aggression by the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin.

They are working together to support Ukraine in its war against the invading Russians, now a war in its third year and nearing 800 days in duration and counting.

Donald Trump represents a dire threat to NATO, as he has been hostile toward the organization, and is threatening to abandon NATO if he is returned to the White House in 2025!

The need for the US to support NATO, and promote more aid to Ukraine, is urgent and essential!

Most Dangerous Time In Foreign Affairs Since World War II!

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America has been through a lot of crises in foreign affairs since World War II, with the 45 Years Cold War with the Soviet Union ending in 1991.

But now in 2024, we not only have to face the twin crises of the Russia-Ukraine War (the most massive war on the European continent since World War II), but also the Israel-Hamas War, which could spread throughout the Middle East.

And we have a former President, Donald Trump, seeking to come back to the White House, who consorts with autocratic leaders, including Vladimir Putin along with many others.

Trump promotes a return to the “America First” mentality advocated by Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, and their ilk in the years before World War II, and the first two years and three months of that war, before Japan pushed America into prosecution of that war.

With eight months to go, the crisis facing America is totally horrifying, and with some public opinion polls showing Trump defeating President Joe Biden!

This cannot be allowed to happen, as it portends the end of American democracy and the rule of law, and the promotion of Fascist authoritarianism, autocracy, and the destruction of the 250th anniversary of independence in 2026!

November 9–Kristallnacht 1938 And Berlin Wall Collapses 1989

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November 9 is a momentous day in world history, and specifically in German history.

In 1938, we had Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), the beginning of widespread violence and arrest of Jews in Germany by the government of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

This is often seen as the beginning of the Holocaust that led to six million Jews and seven million others being slaughtered in concentration camps during the ensuing World War II.

This event is even more significant after the tragic death of 1,400 Israelis on October 7 by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

November 9 in 1989 is a much more pleasant event, as the Berlin Wall was overcome by crowds beginning on that day, marking the end of the Cold War and the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, as well as the reunification of Germany in 1990, an event that is a great moment in history!

Joe Biden And Camp David Summit With South Korea And Japan Important Step For National Security And World Stability!

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In a world in the 2020s, in many respects just as dangerous as a hundred years ago, the need for America to build up and strengthen foreign alliances to promote democracy and security is urgent!

We are fortunate that we have a President, Joe Biden, wise enough to recognize, just as Harry Truman did three quarters of a century ago, the need to build strong international alliances to protect the US and promote democracy against totalitarian governments.

In the last century, we had Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan as the threats in World War II, and then in the Cold War years, we had the Soviet Union to combat.

More recently, we have the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and Iran as the leading rivals and threats to American national security and world stability.

So Joe Biden has wisely built up and expanded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) begun under President Harry Truman, and with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, making a strong commitment to the preservation of that nation’s independence from Russian dominance!

If Donald Trump or many Republican isolationists, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, were to win the White House in 2024, the security umbrella of NATO, with its 31 nations allied with the US, would be in danger of being destroyed, and would only encourage Vladimir Putin ever more in his aggressions, just like Adolf Hitler a century ago.

The news of the meeting of South Korea’s President and Japan’s Premier with President Biden at Camp David, Maryland, yesterday, is an indication of the desire to have closer relations with two key Asian allies, as a bulwark against China and North Korea, and is all to the good for the future of democracy preservation!

Camp David has been the location of historic summits, and adds stature to the commitment of the US to the support of two key Asian allies!

Lyndon B. Johnson And Medicare: 58th Anniversary!

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It has been 58 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare Act, a pathbreaking turning point in health care, after much resistance for a half century.

Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, as the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party Presidential nominee, was the first President to suggest health care should be a national commitment.

His distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered the issue, but had enough of a battle over Social Security being legislated into law in 1935, as part of his “New Deal”.

Harry Truman promoted, as part of his “Fair Deal”, the consideration of some sort of national health care, but it went awry in the divisive politics of the “Red Scare” and the Cold War.

John F. Kennedy also pushed the issue, but did not have the clout to get it past House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas.

Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the issue of national health care as part of his “Great Society”, and got it done, and it has been a godsend to millions of elderly people and disabled people, and added to the following year by the adoption of Medicaid.

Most Republicans opposed it then and since, and continue to call it “Socialism”, and ten states, including Texas and Florida, refuse to expand Medicaid, denying the poor the care they need, and this by a party that claims to be “Pro Life”! 🙁

And Barack Obama, in promoting the Affordable Care Act or “ObamaCare”, expanded health care, and it continues to survive despire blistering Republican and conservative attacks!

So this is a time to salute LBJ, as the savior of the promotion of national health care!

May 8, 1945—VE Day And Harry Truman Birthday In White House

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Today is the 77th Anniversary of VE Day, Victory in Europe over Nazi Germany in World War II, and also the birthday of President Harry Truman, who has ascended to the Presidency less than a month earlier, on April 12, 1945, upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Truman would go on to serve seven years and nine months, and take us through the end of the war against Japan, and the early days of the Cold War against the Soviet Union, and the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), all relevent to today when the Russian Federation is at war against Ukraine, and has committed horrendous war crimes.

The US and its NATO partners are doing everything possible to combat the Russian military action in Ukraine, and World War III could be coming soon, if Russia invades any NATO nation!

America’s Relation With World Conflict Began On This Day In 1917, And Now Facing New World Conflict!

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On this day, April 6, 1917, 105 years ago, America left its isolationist heritage, and began its relation with world conflict, as Congress voted American entrance into World War I.

Woodrow Wilson had wished to keep America at peace, but war was forced upon him by the actions of Imperial Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II.

After World War I, America went back into isolationism, but the rise of Nazism and Fascism forced America and its President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, into World War II in 1941, against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan.

Isolationism would never fully revive again, as America entered the challenges of the Cold War against the Soviet Union from 1945-1991.

Once the Soviet Union collapsed, it was thought America was free of foreign conflict, but international terrorism woke us up in 2001.

And now, the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin has begun waging war against Ukraine, including war crimes, massacre, and genocide.

It places the United Nations organization, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the United States as a world leader to have to consider going into what might become World War III, a horrifying thought.

But it seems clearly, to this blogger and author, that ultimately, Vladimir Putin will not stop at Ukraine, but will very likely attack NATO nations, including the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) and Poland at some point, and the US and NATO will need to respond to attacks on their allies.

Nuclear war is a possibility, horrendous thought, but in the end, a bully must be stopped, or he becomes a worst, more dangerous bully!

So it seems highly likely that Joe Biden will have to do what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt did, take America into a world war!

As Trump Asks For Help From Putin To Slander Biden, Republicans Remain Silent!

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The Republican Party has become a true party of treason and sedition, and not only because of their lack of concern about the January 6 Insurrection.

Donald Trump has appealed to Vladimir Putin to help him slander Joe Biden through unwarranted attacks on Hunter Biden, and Republicans enmasse, with a very few exceptions, remain silent.

And there are Republicans who support Putin, rather than Ukraine, and this includes Fox News Channel and other right wing channels, a true example of treason and sedition.

The Republican Party, the party of anti Soviet views throughout the years of the Cold War, has become complicit in support of the Russian Federation and its autocratic leader.

The Republican Party is backing autocracy against democracy, and denying basic human rights to people of color; women: gays, lesbians and transgenders; labor; immigrants; and the poor.

They have become a party of obscene, hateful, despicable behavior with no shame!

The Republican Party Of History Is Gone! 1854-2022!

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The Republican Party of history once stood for human rights, civil rights, racial equality, in the age of Abraham Lincoln.

The Republican Party of history once stood for progressive reforms, in the age of Theodore Roosevelt, Robert LaFollette, Sr., and George Norris.

The Republican Party of history once stood for promoting internationalism and fighting the Cold War for democracy and against the threat of totalitarianism, in the age of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.

The Republican Party of history once stood for Civil Rights in the age of Senators and Congressmen who joined with Democrats to promote political and social reform.

The Republican Party of history had its elements which were evil and divisive, but the party overall stood for basic principles of decency while promoting conservatism and the concept of limited national government.

But now, the Republican Party has promoted massive give aways to the wealthy, while having no concern about the needs of the middle class and the poor.

But now, the Republican Party consorts with authoritarian regimes of the Left and the Right, including collaborating with Vladimir Putin to fix the Presidential Election of 2016, and to make concessions to the Russian Federation during the era of Donald Trump.

But now, the Republican Party has the craziest conceivable elements in its party, who promote sedition, treason, and attacks on the Constitution and the rule of law.

Only a small element of the 2021-2022 Republican Party is part of the mainstream of American politics, and they are outnumbered and attacked for their commitment to decency, honesty, and the tenets of American democracy. Plaudits to Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Anthony Gonzalez, Peter Meijer, John Katko, Tom Rice, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, Mitt Romney, Pat Toomey, and a small group of other courageous, principled Congressmen and Senators!

Donald Trump and his ilk, which include millions of ignorant, prejudiced white supremacists, antisemites, Islamophobes, racists, nativists and misogynists, represent a dire threat to the American republic, and must be combatted by every legal tool available, to allow America to reach its 250th anniversary in 2026 as a nation still keeping its values and heritage that are a model for democracy around the world in the 21st century!