Category Archives: History

November 10, 2020 · 6:14 pm

History News Network oped: Eisenhower’s Election Day Crisis Reminds Us What Presidents Must Do

Dwight Eisenhower was worried on Election Day in 1956, but not about winning the presidency for the second time. “I don’t give a darn about the election,” he said that day.

Eisenhower was busy trying to avoid World War III. An invasion of Egypt launched days earlier by Israel, France and Great Britain threatened to spiral into a much wider conflict. The fighting had erupted over control of the Suez Canal, a valuable shipping waterway in Egypt connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Britain and France had owned the canal, but Egypt had seized and nationalized it that summer to help pay for a dam building project. The Suez crisis would turn violent at the end of October when Israel, France and Britain used military force to resolve the issue. Eisenhower was furious.

See my full commentary at The History News Network.

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November 3, 2020 · 6:04 pm

Bakersfield Californian oped: Eisenhower’s Election Day crisis reminds us what presidents must do

Dwight Eisenhower was worried on Election Day in 1956, but not about winning the presidency for the second time. “I don’t give a darn about the election,” he said that day.

Eisenhower was busy trying to avoid World War III. An invasion of Egypt launched days earlier by Israel, France and Great Britain threatened to spiral into a much wider conflict. The fighting had erupted over control of the Suez Canal, a valuable shipping waterway in Egypt connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Britain and France had owned the canal, but Egypt had seized and nationalized it that summer to help pay for a dam building project. The Suez crisis would turn violent at the end of October when Israel, France and Britain used military force to resolve the issue. Eisenhower was furious.

see my full commentary in the Bakersfield Californian

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February 2, 2019 · 3:59 pm

Newsweek oped: Trump Ditching Our Nuclear Treaty with Russia Betrays Reagan’s Legacy—and Endangers The World

The decision of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to withdraw the U.S. from the INF Treaty with Russia endangers our national security. Plain and simple.  Along with the Trump administration’s plans to develop new low-yield nuclear weapons, we are risking an arms race with Russia and others – a staggering, utterly unnecessary revival of an existential danger the world thought it had put to sleep a generation ago.

The 1987 INF Treaty with Russia, signed by President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, disarmed medium and short range nuclear missiles. Citing alleged Russian violations of the treaty, Trump is taking the lazy way out and crashes out of the pact. But diplomacy has barely been given a chance. Exiting the agreement will not solve those concerns over violations.

See my full commentary at Newsweek:

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June 5, 2018 · 11:01 am

If We Want to Show We’re Serious About Denuclearizing Korea We Should Sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

The summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un comes near the anniversary of one of President John F. Kennedy’s most famous speeches.  JFK, in a 1963 commencement address at American University, proposed to the Soviet Union ending nuclear weapons testing.

If Trump and Kim are wise, they will follow up on JFK’s test ban proposal to strengthen their own peace effort.

Let’s begin with the fact that North Korea has just dismantled its nuclear test site.  Why not take the next step and end all nuclear testing forever on the Korean peninsula and beyond.

See my full commentary at the History News Network