Rewriting History, Again

I found this article by Arthur Schlesinger in today's Washington Post interesting. Most of it is pretty boring and not very noteworthy. The point, as best I can make it, is that the President is a bad man and basically we should do nothing in the War of Terror. What I found most interesting is that Mr. Schlesinger simply breezes past the Cold War as if it was won through "containment plus deterrence."

It was lucky that JFK was determined to get the missiles out peacefully, because only decades later did we discover that the Soviet forces in Cuba had tactical nuclear weapons and orders to use them to repel a U.S. invasion. This would have meant a nuclear exchange. Instead, JFK used his own thousand days to give the American University speech, a powerful plea to Americans as well as to Russians to reexamine "our own attitude -- as individuals and as a nation -- for our attitude is as essential as theirs." This was followed by the limited test ban treaty. It was compatible with the George Kennan formula -- containment plus deterrence -- that worked effectively to avoid a nuclear clash. [...]

But our Cold War presidents kept to the Kennan formula of containment plus deterrence, and we won the Cold War without escalating it into a nuclear war.

Notice how easy is was to face down the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis and ultimately win the Cold War? A simple speech and a policy of "containment plus deterrence." Gee, if only it was that easy.

Of course Mr.Schlesinger fails to mention that the policy of "containment plus deterrence" got us nowhere with the Soviets under Kennedy (Cuban Missle Crisis, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam-Beginning), Johnson (Vietnam-Middle), Nixon (Vietnam-Defeat), Ford, and Carter (Afghanistan). Only when Ronald Reagan aggressively confronted to Soviet Empire were they defeated.

Of course lofty speeches and wishful thinking may make liberal intellectuals feel superior, but the reality says otherwise. Just as President Reagan won the Cold War by confronting what truly was an Evil Empire, President Bush and future president's can only win the War on Terror by aggressively confronting the evil ideology of the Islamists.