Truman didn't think communism was a threat. When Churchill made his "Iron Curtain" speech, Truman felt it was fair to invite Stalin's comments!
Truman was a great president. But a little soft on the commies. Like J. Edgar who didn't think there was a mafia.
A great piece on Vietnam:
encarta.msn.com
And an article from 1999
Architects of victory
jewishworldreview.com -- I just
finished reading "Architects of Victory" by Joseph
Shattan, published by the Heritage Foundation. It
traces the accomplishments of six towering figures
principally responsible for the West's triumph over the
Soviet Communist Empire in the Cold War.
After arduous study, Shattan came to the conclusion
that the ideas and actions of these people were
indispensable to achieving victory: Winston Churchill,
Konrad Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II and
Ronald Reagan.
The book's six chapters are essentially
mini-biographies of these men, emphasizing their
major contributions to the West's victory.
You can be sure that this book will not achieve
prominence in the mainstream media because it
debunks the anti-American conventional wisdom (as
portrayed, for example, in CNN's documentary, "The
Cold War") that President Truman started the Cold
War, Reagan exacerbated it and Mikhail Gorbachev
finished it.
To be honest, I expected the book to be a dry,
historical work. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Shattan describes the emotions this project evoked. "I
had not expected to find the entire experience so
moving. Yet, how could anyone not be deeply moved
after prolonged exposure to each of these great men?"
Believe me, Shattan's passion in this enrapturing
account is quite contagious.
He describes Churchill as the visionary who first
recognized as early as 1919 and reiterated in his 1946
"Iron Curtain" Speech in Fulton, Missouri, that the
West could not merely coexist with Soviet
Communism -- it would have to confront and defeat
it. Of Lenin and Trotsky he wrote, "Theirs is a war
against civilized society that can never end."
Truman is credited for rejecting FDR's conciliatory
policies toward Moscow and for the Greek-Turkish
aid package, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and
NATO, all of which were crucial in preserving the
integrity and security of Western Europe during these
critical years.
Konrad Adenhauer was the West German leader who was
instrumental in aligning the pivotal West Germany with
the West, over fierce internal opposition from nationalistic
and socialistic forces.
During the '70s, America and the West were floundering
aimlessly in pursuit of a moral compass and foreign policy
to replace the failed strategy of containment. Their answer
came from an unexpected source.
Deep inside the Iron Curtain bellowed the voice of
Soviet dissident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who
provided a gut-wrenching first-hand account of the
murderous and oppressive practices of the Soviet
regime. His courageous words breathed new life into
the West's demoralized and slumbering Cold
Warriors.
"Gulag Archipelago" and his other works laid the
moral groundwork for the third and final phase of the
war where the West would resoundingly triumph
under the generalship of Ronald Reagan.
Pope John Paul II's work in supporting Solidarity in his
native Poland contributed mightily to the implosion of
the already overextended Soviet empire. Shattan's tribute
is fitting. "It is ironic that the empire built by Josef
Stalin -- who had asked mockingly at Potsdam how many
divisions the Pope had -- was brought down, in no small
measure by a Pope who had nothing but words at his
disposal."
Ronald Reagan recognized the truth in what Churchill had
trumpeted when no one was listening: The Soviet Union was
an evil empire that we should engage and defeat. Accordingly,
he adopted National Security Decision Directive 75, which
called on the U.S. to take the offensive in the Cold War
through "military strategy, economic policy, and political
action."
Reagan's ability to see the world clearly and his
determination to act on that vision ultimately brought
the Soviet Empire to its knees.
What are the lessons?
The Cold War was indeed a war, a war that would have
victors and losers. Stalemate and neutrality were not
options. Had the U.S. not geared up and dedicated its
full resources to fighting this war, we may not have been
victorious.
It was a war whose stakes can hardly be overstated.
Hanging in the balance was nothing less than the survival
of Western civilization and its historically unparalleled
experiment in freedom, democracy and capitalism. It was a
titanic struggle between the forces of good and evil.
For the complete article, go to:
jewishworldreview.com
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