Excerpted from Foreign Affairs, “The Next President’s Daunting Agenda”, by Richard Holbrooke, September/October 2008
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It is a well-established historical fact that what candidates say about foreign policy is not always … what they will do if elected. Historians point to a myriad of examples:
- Franklin Roosevelt’s 1940 promise to not send “your boys . . . into any foreign wars,”
- Lyndon Johnson’s statements in 1964 that he would not send ground troops to Vietnam,
- Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. ground troops from South KoreaRichard Nixon’s 1968 references to a nonexistent “secret plan” to get out of Vietnam,
- Ronald Reagan’s 1980 pledge to upgrade U.S. relations with Taiwan to “official” status,
- Bill Clinton’s 1992 promises to stand up to the “butchers of Beijing,”
- George W. Bush’s 2000 call for a “more humble” foreign policy that would never again have the United States involved in “nation building.”
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Whatever their ultimate fate, however, campaign positions are key indicators of the priorities and thinking of each candidate as he approaches the most powerful and difficult job in the world. It is therefore valuable to examine them carefully.
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Richard Holbrooke was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1999 to 2001
Full article:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/the_next_presidents_daunting_a.html
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