Victor Davis Hanson // Private Papers
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.)
Frederic J. Brown // Pool via Reuters
Will Blinken and Sullivan so learn?