Historians who charge America & Truman with causing the Cold War by abandoning FDR’s policy of cooperation with Stalin do both the nation and the man an injustice. The charge that America exploited its power and sole possession of the atom bomb to bully
the USSR is propaganda. Truman was not the father of the Cold War, Stalin was. His betrayal of war-time pledges and outrages across Soviet-occupied Europe opened America’s eyes to the character of our ex-ally and turned the nation toward confrontation.
Source: “A Republic, Not an Empire,” p.307-8
Oct 9, 1999
US never committed to Vietnam victory; as Great Power must
Vietnam was a legitimate war of containment that could have been won... if the US had used its full conventional power and refused to set geographic limits on the use of that power. There was, and is, an argument for Vietnam; there was never an
argument for fighting it as we did. It is the mark of a Great Power that when it commits itself to war, it commits itself to victory, and all the force necessary to prevail. We did not. America lost because of a collapse of will of its political elite.
Source: “A Republic, Not an Empire,” p.321
Oct 9, 1999
How much Clinton has reduced the Armed Forces
Since this Administration took office, the following forces have been stripped from America’s arsenal: 709,000 regular service soldiers, 293,000 reserve troops, 8 standing Army divisions, 20 Air Force wings with 2,000 combat aircraft, 232 strategic
bombers, 13 strategic ballistic missile submarines with 3,114 nuclear warheads, 500 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 4 aircraft carriers, and 121 combat ships and submarines.
Source: www.GoPatGo.org/ “Issues: Rebuilding Military”
Jun 12, 1999
Don’t meddle unless vital interests at stake
The purpose of US armed forces is to fight and win America’s wars, not meddle in foreign quarrels that have nothing to do with America’s vital interests. The lives of US Soldiers will be put at risk only when America’s vital interests are at stake.
Source: www.gopatgo2000.com/000-c-foreignpolicy.html 5/28/99
May 28, 1999
End troops abroad; foreigners must pay own defense
For half a century we willfully and rightly defended Europe and Asia so that free nations could break bread at democracy’s table. It is their turn, now, to start picking up the tab. Bosnia and Kosovo are in Europe’s backyard, not ours; they, not we,
should police that blood-soaked peninsula. It is not natural, it is not normal, to have US soldiers occupy foreign lands in times of peace. America’s armed services should not be the policeman of the planet or the social worker of the world.
Source: Presidential Annoucement Speech, Courtyard NH
Mar 2, 1999
Click here for 15 main quotations from Pat Buchanan on Defense.
Click here for definitions & background information on Defense.
