There is a time to every purpose under heaven. Anything that implied that there was a basis for the terrorists killing thousands of innocent people, or that the United States was not worth defending, might legitimately be viewed askance. In any event, we have followed a well- worn principle: that it is not up to us to determine the form of government for all of the nations with which we trade, it is for us to deal with the regimes "on the ground".
Even in cases like Cuba, we were initially prepared to accept the revolutionaries, until they declared their ties to the Soviet Union. Carter originally supported the Sandinistas, until they showed themselves to be totalitarian and aligned with Cuba. When it was in our interests, we dealt with Stalin, and later Mao. No one said we should be ashamed of ourselves. Instead, we were praised for pursuing peaceful coexistence.
We have reacted variously over the years. One can find fault with some of it, although some has likely been beneficial. It is impossible to demonstrate all of the "what ifs". The main thing, though, is that we were determined to meet the strategic challenge of the Soviet Union, and took upon ourselves the task of maintaining a reasonable degree of order in the postcolonial period. I think we did a pretty good job......... |
