History shows us that the world does look at the leader of the United States, and various nations take careful stock about him. In the past, the signs of weakness in a President has had negative consequences for us as a nation. For this post, I will only reference two of those times and apply the lessons for today.
In 1950, the world looked with trepidation at the Korean Peninsula. World War 2 had split the Koreas into two — the north, supported by Bejing and Moscow, was leaning toward the Soviet Bloc of socialist (communist) countries. In the south, what would be South Korea had the backing of the United Nations, of which the most notable was the United States.
Would the threatened invasion of the South Korean land take place? North Koreans had done their homework on the only power that had any chance of preventing the uniting the two peoples; that nation was America.
Harry Truman was President in June 1950. He inherited the job when Franklin Roosevelt succumbed to a stroke on 12 April 1945. To the American people, Truman was mostly unknown. But he ran for election on his own merits in November 1948, and narrowly defeated Thomas Dewey, in a close vote. Truman’s deficits as a leader had been in question by many and his approval rating was quite low.
Since splitting the peninsula into two parts, attempts to bring them together had come to naught. The U. N. administered the separation, but failed to get a vote from the people to determine the future of Korea. Then North Korea attacked the South. At the time of the attack, the North Koreans had an army of 150,000 to 200,000, while the South Koreans numbered about 98,000.
Several incursions had taken place from the North before the general attack, but they were always small and centered on Seoul. Kim Il-sung, the North’s dictator, changed that strategy and sent his troops across all the 38th Parallel, the official dividing line between the two areas. 25 June, 1950 was the date, and the subsequent fighting would cost America over 35,000 deaths.
What would the U. S. do? A ‘weak’ President was not expected to commit to a war in East Asia, which may have emboldened the North. But Truman rallied the United Nations to declare a ‘police action’ after that body unanimously condemned the attack. To make a long story short, the South Koreans were driven down the peninsula into a small perimatur around the port city of Pusan.
With American troops leading the way, the conflict settled down into a war of attrition with little movement. A July 1953 truce was called to halt the carnage.
On 20 January John Kennedy was inaugurated at President of the U. S. With the Cold War in full swing, a ‘summit’ was arranged between Kennedy and the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna on 3-4 June 1961. There were three issues on the table for the two politicians: the Berlin Wall, Laos and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
Although Kennedy thought he had been roughly handled by the veteran Soviet leader, Khrushchev began to feel that the young American President was not a formidable foe. When the opportunity arose to put nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba, a Soviet protégé, he did so. In October 1962, when Kennedy found out about the missiles, the crisis arose — we could not countenance nuclear weapons, held by a hostile force, just 90 miles from our shores.
Who won the standoff is still debated, but in the end the Soviets got some of their demands and the Americans got the missiles sent back to the Russians. But many believe that Khrushchev saw weakness and acted.
What will happen now with Joe Biden as President*? Already, foreign nations have either been insulted or shorted on respect by his administration’s words and actions. Some of those nations are not without resources to act, either militarily or financially, against the United States.
Just a ‘laundry list’ of such countries will show that the *’s actions have put the American people in danger of such retaliation, with the knowledge that he is not made of the steel we need in a world gone mad.
First, the two nuclear powers that could engage us in conflict were shown that President *’s words were not conducive to amicable relations. Russia has control of around 6500 nuclear warheads, yet Biden called him a killer while being interviewed on national television. Vladimir Putin is no lightweight; he immediately pulled his ambassador out of Washington and called him home to Moscow for ‘consultations’. Around the same time, Russian military unites were sent to the border of Ukraine, threatening a local war that could escalate into something more, as we have backed that Eastern European nation in their disputes with Russia.
Although the Chinese might not want to go warhead to warhead with us in nuclear conflict, they have been flexing their military muscle in the South China Seas, claiming sovereignty in places never before that flew the Chinese flag. When it comes to economic policy, showing weakness, as was done at a meeting of Chinese and American officials in Alaska is not a good look. There, faced with a withering 17 minute diatribe against our way of life, our U. S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, blinked.
North Korea has begun to up its testing of missiles since * became President. Their ‘esteemed’ leader, Kim Jong-un, rebuffed a meeting with our diplomats and resumed the firing of missiles over areas close to our important allies. He has made it clear he will try anything to be accepted on the world stage, and he sees an opportunity now after President Trump is no longer able to rein him in.
We won’t get into any kind of shooting war with Israel, but why insult their leader by ignoring him? Instead of following the usual courtesy phone call at the beginning of his administration, Biden did not make the call to our most important Middle Eastern ally. That was delayed, and only then was made by Kamala Harris*, his Vice.
When one of Biden’s* executive orders cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, Canada was economically impacted, since the oil came from Canadian oil fields. Biden* did not call him about it and ignored requests to talk to the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. That nation, as you all know, it one of our largest economic partners — why stiff him?
In the Middle East, there are noises out of the White House and activity on the ground that suggest that this administration* wants to reengage the Iranian government with the deal that former President Barack Obama made. That agreement was jettisoned by Donald Trump, but now it seems the new administration wants back in. Who does that tick off in the Middle East? One of our allies there — Saudi Arabia.
We are not suggesting that Biden* wants a face-to-fact military showdown with any of these, but when nations who put their own welfare above others see a weak and ineffective ‘leader of the free world’, you can bet the farm they will take advantage of him.
See the examples above of Harry Truman and John Kennedy for what has happened in the past.
Our ‘leader’, dear readers, is what we elected in 2020. Are we feeling buyer remorse yet? With higher prices for gas, and a lessening respect in the world and an immigration crisis on our Southern border, Biden* has gone a long way in just three months to damage our way of life.