Musings of a History Teacher: Where America came from and where it is going by Grossman Ken

Author:Grossman, Ken [Grossman, Ken]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

FUTURE CHALLENGES

Now let us fast forward to more current times. Unfortunately, there are few presidents who have possessed the skills to combine the best qualities of the fox and the hedgehog, although we were clearly in need of that on 9/11.

Had George W. Bush been a fox, he would have seized upon the international goodwill generated for our plight to set a new course. Instead, he took the most predictable path, one the hedgehog might relish. We attacked another nation to settle scores. Unfortunately, to make matters worse, it was the wrong nation, based on faulty information at the wrong moment in time. Obviously, the fox played no part in this. There was no grand strategy in mind other than retribution. If anything, this emboldened terrorists, leading to further destabilization in a region already beset with problems.

If the President had acted as the bold and unpredictable fox, he might have made better use of this moment, convening a conference on the root causes of terrorism, a subject that all industrialized nations have a stake in confronting.

The fox might have looked back to the time of the Marshall Plan during the Truman Administration when expansive communist designs threatened Greece still mired in poverty and chaos post World War ll. Instead of marching in to oppose communist sympathizers, we bolstered the economy of Greece with a huge infusion of capital...aiming for the long-term goal of economic and political stability, the best antidote in confronting the threat of communism.

If we had a Secretary of State in place like James Baker, we would have internationalized this initiative, working through organizations like the UN, GATT and the World Bank...or even creating new ones to better confront the issues at hand. For that is what Baker did when the Soviet Union was unraveling in the post-Reagan era. Baker was the ultimate fox in foreign affairs, finding new and novel ways to put together an international coalition to help convert the Russian economy to one that was compatible with the West’s.

At the same time, Baker was dealing with other major issues, including putting together an international coalition to deal with the Iraqi invasion of neighboring Kuwait. But this time, the nimble Baker played the hedgehog, keeping this a limited war with limited goals. Let us not forget that it was the ultimate hedgehog, President George HW Bush who saw the fox-like talents of James Baker and the need to have him by his side.

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