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Diplomatic Lessons?

Diplomatic Lessons?

Victor Davis Hanson // Private Papers

PX 96-33:12 03 June 1961 President Kennedy meets with Chairman Khrushchev at the U. S. Embassy residence, Vienna. U. S. Dept. of State photograph in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston. WikiCommons

A forty-something inexperienced JFK in June 1961 was clobbered at the Vienna summit by Nikita Khrushchev—and learned the USSR interpreted magnanimity and earnestness as weakness to be exploited not reciprocated. (Read about the Summit)

The same happened this week in Anchorage to our Secretary of State Blinken and National Security advisor Sullivan by the no-nonsense communist Chinese. Kennedy admitted that Khrushchev “just beat the hell out of me”—and never let it happen again. (Read more about our diplomats.)

Jake Sullivan at the table.
Frederic J. Brown // Pool via Reuters

Will Blinken and Sullivan so learn?

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Philip Horner 6 years ago

Leftists are so sure of the superiority of their positions that they will literally insist one of their anti police protests is peaceful while buildings burn from riots behind them. They are all Baghdad Bobs'.

Astute Observer 6 years ago

I did hear someone comment that the reason JFK escalated the war in Vietnam was to show Kruushchev that as a new POTUS, he was not fearful of using force and committing troops to resolve conflicts. JFK, in fact raised the level of alert to DEFCON 2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis; an act of which the Russians were aware. It was generally accepted that the Missile Crisis was as close as we ever came to nuclear war. It was revealed 40 years later, in 2002, that WW3 was prevented, literally, by the action of a Soviet Navy Officer named Vasili Arkhipov. Now we have a senile, inept and corrupt POTUS. If a similar situation to the Cuban Missile Crises should manifest itself between China and the US while Biden is supposedly in charge, what would be the outcome? For the wealthy among us, it may be time to purchase a bunker.