The Kremlin’s hardline foreign policy is not a problem unique to Barack Obama.
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Today, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) wrote in a National Review op-ed that, although he agrees with the new sanctions President Barack Obama put on Russia, he’s not doing enough to put the heat on the Russians after the invasion and annexation of Crimea. Cornyn, as well as other Republicans such as Sarah Palin, have suggested that Obama’s weakness has caused Russian aggression. Here’s four other Presidents who weren’t able to stop curtail Russian military involvement.
1. Dwight Eisenhower, Republican – The official policy of Eisenhower’s government was to ‘promote independence’ of Eastern Bloc states against the Soviet Union. When the nation of Hungary revolted against the Soviet Union and withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, however, Eisenhower was unable to stop the Soviet Union from invading and restoring the Communist government there. The Soviets actually executed the President of Hungary for treason two years later.
2. Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat – In 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War and great tensions at home for the United States, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia after the Czech leader, Alexander Dubček, attempted to buck the party line. Like Eisenhower before him, Johnson was unable to stop the Soviet invasion of a sovereign nation, although many Communist parties on both the inside and outside of the Warsaw Pact denounced the invasion.
3. Jimmy Carter, Democrat – As Cornyn noted in his op-ed, former President and constant Republican punching bag Jimmy Carter’s term saw the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan in what turned out to be a ten-year embarrassment for the Soviet Union.
4. George W. Bush, Republican – In the first serious post-Cold War test of Russo-American relations, Russia invaded the former Soviet republic of Georgia over the separatist South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Bush imposed sanctions on Russia and sent aid to Georgia, but both countries reached a ceasefire agreement after nine days of fighting.
Russia, as has been the case since the Bolshevik Revolution began, has always posed a significant problem for the United States in terms of geopolitical policy. Short of beginning a war over an overwhelmingly pro-Russian territory, there’s not much that can be done besides imposing significant economic sanctions on Russia, something that Obama has used to his advantage by suspending Russia from the G7. Republicans would do well to remember the policies of past US presidents before they accuse this one of causing the Russian invasion of Crimea.
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Photo – olpol/Flickr
“they’ve viewed Crimea ” Who is “they”? The fact is since the dissolution of the Soviet Union (thank you Ronald Regan and Pope John Paul) the Ukraine has been an independent country struggling to establish that independence and shedding the imperialistic influence of Russia. At the time that the events referenced by the author above occurred in Czechoslovakia and Hungary those countries were bound to the Soviet Union by a treaty. The Ukraine has no such treaty with Russia and has not had one since the Soviet Union dissolved. Since 1917 chaotic period of warfare ensued after the Russian Revolution,… Read more »
This is such nonsense, i have no words. It stinks of US propaganda against Russia and against Putin, and nobody questions that pile of BS. It’s not Russian aggression that needs to be combated its American aggression which sponsors radicals all over the world to become bloody dictators. Are you aware that American NGO’s and CIA financed Nazi right extremist groups in Ukraine. And that Tymoshenko so ardently supported by US and EU actually talked about “nuking russians in Crimea”….
Geez. Wake up, people and stop watching mainstream media owned by 5 corporations.
Can you cite reliable sources for these allegations? Is your source the Russian run state media? You know I think you are right we should adopt Putin’s views beginning with the legislation barring public displays of support for gay rights.
Yes, I think any nation should be able to disregard the sovereign borders of a neighboring nation. I really love the Canadian Maritime Provinces. They border Maine don’t they.
There’s an old Canadian proverb: ‘Don’t mess with Nova Scotia…’
Your ignorance of history and historical context is profound. There are fundamental differences between Obama’s clear ignorance and cowardice and the events you reference. Hungary and Czechoslovakia were members of the Warsaw Pact. They were countries that were in an economic and Military alliance with the Soviet Union before the events you describe and the Soviet Union saw the actions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia as violations of that treaty and they acted upon them with some justification. Here Crimea was clearly within the sovereign borders of the Ukraine and Ukraine had no treaty obligating them to Russia in any way,… Read more »
WOW…
Now put THAT in your pipe and smoke it. 😉
thanks Tom. As Jack Webb used to say “Just the facts”.
“Hungary and Czechoslovakia were members of the Warsaw Pact. They were countries that were in an economic and Military alliance with the Soviet Union.” Just to put it into context, at that same time the Ukraine itself (and thus Crimea) was part of the Soviet Union itself- historically speaking, both the Ukraine and especially Crimea have always been in a far, far tighter orbits of Russian influence than Hungary or Czechoslovakia ever were, even at the height of the Cold War & Warsaw pact. Crimea was part of Russia proper until it was ‘gifted’ to the Ukraine in 1954 (which… Read more »
they’ve viewed Crimea Who is ‘they’? The Ukraine has been an internationally recognized independent country since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For the past 20 years the Ukraine has been trying to shed the Russian influence. Unlike Hungary in the 1950’s and Czechoslovakia in the 1960’s there has been and there is no treaty binding the Ukraine to Russia and the Ukraine has a long history of trying to tear away from Russia. So given the relative youth of the Ukraine you would think we would be a bit more sensitive to the threat posed by the Russians, but… Read more »
im curious if nato really would defend the baltic states if russia was to walk in there, as currently i just dont see the will to defend militarily those states. even though they are members of nato. would the eu and usa have the political and public will to send hundreds of thousands of troops. from what little i have found online the baltic states dont seem reassured by current nato assurances over their sovereignty. perhaps that is putin’s plan – to destroy nato: by seizing a baltic state in order to ‘protect’ ethnic russians living there. the nato treaties… Read more »
Hey, according to Obama the Russian threat was 1980’s foreign policy. Remember that. Remember Mitt Romney warning of the Russian threat. I can tell you this had we elected Romney we would have been prepared for this, but Obama dismissed the Russian threat cavalierly. Hey, Mr. Obama, its the 1980’s on the phone and they say Putin is making you look like a fool.
Is this piece supposed to contradict Sen. Cornyn? I ask because it has acceded to Cornyn’s real rhetorical point, which consists of re-framing the facts to make American aggression look like Russian aggression.