NYT: At West Point, Bush Draws Parallels With Truman

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/washington/28bush.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

At West Point, Bush Draws Parallels With Truman

WEST POINT, N.Y., May 27 — President Bush implicitly compared himself to Harry S. Truman in a commencement address at the United States Military Academy on Saturday, saying Truman acted boldly against the "fanatic faith" of cold war communism in the same way Mr. Bush's administration has responded to the threat of terrorism since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"By the actions he took, the institutions he built, the alliances he forged and the doctrines he set down, President Truman laid the foundations for America's victory in the cold war," Mr. Bush told the class of 2006.

Mr. Bush has compared the struggle against communism to the current war against Islamic radicalism in previous speeches, but his address on Saturday was his most developed on the theme. He left it unsaid that Truman was deeply unpopular at the end of his two terms in office and that it took a generation to appreciate his achievements.

[shain from kane]

1. Any hint of dropping the Bomb in the future? n/t

[Joe Bacon]

35. Yet another bunch of lies from the Times

Can ANYONE show me ONE instance where Elizabeth BULLSHITTER, er, Bumiller, HASN'T kissed Bush's ass 24/7?

[Rex]

2. So we are back in the Cold War days.

:eyes: Or is it the War on Terror? Bush just oozes arrogance, no wonder he is the most hated dude on Earth.

[Deja Q]

3. Here's some info on what Truman did as President:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman

Interesting stuff.

[dflprincess]

4. I'd love to hear what Harry would say about that

Maybe Margaret Truman will make some comment.

[OzarkDem]

19. Truman must be spinning in his grave

A very partisan man, he would object very strongly to any GOP'er comparing themselves to him.

[tularetom]

5. Ever notice how nobody else draws these parallels?

The little asswipe is really grasping at straws now that his ratings have gone down the shitter. The formerly obedient media has begun comparing him with Hoover, Grant, Buchanan, Nixon and other useless POS presidents so he thinks he can counter the characterizations by a comparison to a pres who actually possessed cojones as well as brains. Sounds very unconvincing when delivered in a fake texas accent.

[randomelement]

6. Try this

Google:

"Bush compared himself"+president

and let me know which president/person of prominence he hasn't compared himself with yet .....

I look forward to the day when he compares himself to a pile of shit (which is the correct comparison)

[MADem]

7. Yeah, more like Truman Capote in his meanspirited final days....

He lost every friend he had with that ANSWERED PRAYERS fiasco...

[shain from kane]

8. "The buck stops here", but W* won't admit any mistakes. n/t

[struggle4progress]

18. Truman really had that sign on his desk -- and took it seriously.

[shain from kane]

9. I would imagine that "Give 'em Hell" Harry would have W* on top of

his shitlist.

[SpiralHawk]

10. "I knew Harry Truman. Harry Truman was a friend of mine.

And you -- Mr. Connecticut Preppy AWOL Cheerleader -- are no Harry Truman." - SpiralHuckTOOee

[El Supremo]

11. The War on Terrorism somehow equates to The Cold War ?

Wow, what a jump!

The Cold War could have become the end of civilization. Unless Iran or whoever can deliver nukes, I don't see the same serious consequences that we faced back then.

What I do see is a calculated plan to remove civil liberties in much the same way as McCarthy and the John Birch Society, using their Red Scare bullshit, tried to do the 50's and 60's. But for far less of a threat.

This isn't a conflict about political ideology. It is a conflict over the intrusion of sovereign nations because of oil.

[Xipe Totec]

12. More like President Skroob - Spaceballs

With Rummy as Dark Helmet.

Uh-oh, here comes the Badyear Blimp ...

[progressivebydesign]

28. Rummy isn't cool enough to be Dark Helmet. he's more like Barf. n/t

[georgiagirl]

13. Truman descendants

I hope that someone in the Truman family will say something and put the little creep in his place. It would have taken Harry less than 5 minutes to tell this arrogant excuse for a man what he thought of him. Maybe one of the Dems in Congress might comment?

[Itchinjim]

14. If HST were alive today,

He'd be shitting himself over that comparison. W. is the anti-HST if he's anything at all.

[stepnw1f]

15. Bush Trying to Ride a Historical Moment's Coat Tails

into his own quagmire. Uh uh... aint gonna work.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

16. Harry Truman was eventually recognized because he was

Harry Truman.

A decent and hard-working American who never forgot his roots. MKJ

edited to add: does gwb even know that he's comparing himself to a Democrat?

[Lisa]

17. "who's Bush comparing himself to now?"

Perhaps Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert ought to start a new segment for their TV shows?

[calimary]

39. Hey, that's a good idea!

It would indeed be a good segment. And it would come along fairly frequently at the rate this putz is going. We need LOTS of such vehicles to put His Imperial Arrogance in his place.

[Stargleamer]

20. With any luck his poll numbers will be as low as Truman's

was during his last year in office.

[ladjf]

21. I hard pressed to believe that a single cadet was gullible enough

to "buy" one word of that stupid, hackneyed crap Bush was dealing out to them.

[wellst0nev0ter]

22. Maybe If He's Referencing " To Err Is Truman"

Otherwise there's no comparison to Mr. "Wars are best left to future presidents" to Mr. "Buck stops here."

[Mountainman]

23. Fuck you Bush, you will never measure up to even Truman's worse

moments. Bush is going down in history as the worse president in this country's history. Only he has the nerve to compare himself to great leaders. Fuck you Bush, Fuck you very much !

[Hardrada]

24. Does he address them every fucking year??

Yet one more of the myriad reasons to hate that cokesacker.

[INDIA]

40. Actually...

It has become traditional for Presidents to adddress at least one of the military academies every year. Clinton did it too. I don't know how far back it goes. FYI.

[Historic NY]

25. Mr. Bush your no Harry Truman.....

in fact your not even close.

[IndianaGreen]

26. Let's take a cold hard look at the Truman Doctrine, shall we?

Let's take a cold hard look at the Truman Doctrine, shall we, for it led to years of military interventionism that culminated in Vietnam, and in US-sponsored anti-democratic coups in Guatemala, Iraq, and Iran. Here is a 1968 article about the Truman Doctrine that you won't find in the Truman Library:

The Truman Doctrine and the Greek Civil War

excerpted from the book

Intervention and Revolution
The United States in the Third World

by Richard J. Barnet

World Publishing, 1968, paperback edition

p97
In the name of the Truman Doctrine the United States supplied the military and economic power to enable the Greek monarchy to defeat an army of communist-led insurgents in 1947-49 and won a victory which has become a model for U.S. relations toward civil wars and insurgencies. Almost twenty years later the President of the United States was defending his intervention in Vietnam by pointing to his predecessor's success in Greece. The American experience in Greece not only set the pattern for subsequent interventions in internal wars but also suggested the criteria for assessing the success or failure of counterinsurgency operations. Greece was the first major police task which the United States took on in the postwar world. One of the most important consequences of the American involvement in Greece in the 1940'S was the development of new bureaucracies specializing in military assistance, police administration, and economic aid, committed to an analysis of revolution and a set of responses for dealing with it that would be applied to many different conflicts in the next twenty years.

p101
When President Truman announced the decision to help the Greek monarchy win the civil war, he stressed that the commitment was prompted by the "terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by communists.'' The United States was to use its power to put down violence. But, clearly, violence itself was not the issue, for throughout 1946, according to correspondents of the London Times and other U.S. and British papers, the Greek government itself had been carrying out mass arrests, tortures, beatings, and other retaliation against those who had been on the wrong side of the earlier civil war that ended in January, 1945. The foreign minister had resigned in early 1946, charging "terrorism by state organs." In Greece, as elsewhere, the violence of constituted authorities, however oppressive their rule, was judged by one criterion and the violence of insurgents by another. President Truman alluded to the corruption and brutality of the Greek government by conceding that it was "not perfect." But while the fascist character of the government genuinely bothered some members of the U.S. government, most National-Security Managers shared the judgment of former Secretary of State James Byrnes: "We did not have to decide that the Turkish Government and the Greek Monarchy were outstanding examples of free and democratic governments."

p118
Two ... ideas which had been crucial to the development of official thinking in important parts of the national security bureaucracy were carefully excised from the Truman Doctrine message as it made the circuit of government in successive drafts. One was that the struggle in Greece was part of a global battle between economic systems. Six days before the Truman Doctrine message, the President had delivered a speech at Baylor University in Texas in which he declared that the United States was "the giant of the economic world," with the responsibility for setting "the future pattern of economic relations." Posing the fundamental split in the world between "free enterprise" and "planning," he strongly implied that the one led to peace while the other meant war. Two days before the President's scheduled appearance before Congress, C}ark Clifford came to Acheson with a revision suggested in the White House to the effect that "continued chaos in other countries and pressure exerted upon them from without would mean the end of free enterprise and democracy in those countries and that the disappearance of free enterprise in other nations would threaten our economy and our democracy." Acheson opposed the insertion of this ideological language on the grounds that it might embarrass American relations with the Socialist government of Great Britain. But a number of major advisers in the administration attached considerable importance to this point.

If Clifford's articulation of the economic conflict was too ideological for Acheson's taste, his second suggestion smacked too much of realpolitik; Clifford wanted a reference in the speech to Greece's strategic importance and to "the great natural resources of the Middle East." When British Marshal Montgomery had asked the U.S. chiefs of staff in the fall of 1946 what value they attached to Middle Eastern oil, "their immediate and unanimous answer was-vital." Forrestal was almost obsessed with the strategic importance of the area to the United States. But the State Department concluded that it would create an unfortunate impression if it appeared that the enunciation of the American Responsibility had something to do with oil. The administration anticipated enough problems in distinguishing the new American relationship to the Mediterranean from Britain's imperial role. As it was, Acheson was asked some pointed questions in the hearings about possible connections between the President's dramatic announcement of America's new "responsibility" for the Eastern Mediterranean and the authorization two days earlier of the trans-Arabian pipeline. Acheson replied that there was none. The charge made by leftist critics and a few disappointed British imperialists that the Truman Doctrine was principally a piece of petroleum diplomacy is a serious distortion. Nevertheless, there is no doubt, as Stephen Xydis observes in his exhaustive study of the relevant documents, that one motive for the United States' intervention was to stabilize the area so as to "contribute to the preservation of American oil concessions there."

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Insurgency_Revolution/Truman%20Doc_GreekCW_IAR.html

[progressivebydesign]

27. My God! Did you read his comments????

The war is just beginning? "spreading democracy from Damascas to Tehran"??? WTF?? We have to get control back into the hands of sane people, and away from the oily theocratic motherfuckers aka PNAC. This frightens me beyond belief to hear that dimwitted asshole talk of neverending wars... and spreading democracy to the middle east (he means chrisitanity! and american control of the oil fields!). And he has the nerve to chide former administrations (did he include his Dad and Reagan's admin.?) for enabling the Middle East.

He's no Truman.. he's an insignificant little worm that was born on third and thought he hit a triple. Bet the repubs who put him in office as a front are feeling a bit like doctor frankenstein. :grr:

[Ilsa]

33. I bet alot of those 22 year olds ate that shit up.

Probably as many or even more at Annapolis when Sneer spoke to them hte other day. I bet some were drooling with anticipation.

[OneBlueSky]

29. that's REALLY scary . . . if he really sees himself as Trumanesque . . .

then he's likely considering doing what Truman did i.e. using nuclear weapons . . .

BushCo's cavalier attitude toward nukes scares the hell out of me . . .

we really need to get as many Senators and Members of Congress as possible to introduce emergency legislation that prohibits BushCo from attacking Iraq without prior Congressional approval . . . NOW! . . .

[Pierre Trudeau]

30. in some respects, the comparison is apt...

Truman was the creator of the "National Security Establishment". Bush is taking it to a whole new level.
Truman founded the CIA. Bush is destroying it and subsuming it into the Pentagon-centred military-industrial complex.
Truman doctrine. Bush doctrine.
Truman used nuclear weapons. Bush.....??

I don't want to knock Harry, he also had many good qualities. But all this police-state apparatus, nuclear arms race, secretive national-security infrastructure, you can ultimately thank him for that.

[IndianaGreen]

38. Truman was the creator of the state security apparatus, like you said

Clinton did his own share of harm by bringing even more secrecy into the government, such as his directive that barred the public from the ridge overlooking the very expensive and environmental disaster that is Area 51 facility.

Bush merely took what was already there and took it to new heights if infamy, and Congress did nothing to stop him!

National Security Council (NSC)
Truman Administration (1947-1953)

The National Security Council was created by Public Law 80-253, approved July 26, 1947, as part of a general reorganization of the U.S. national security apparatus. The function of the NSC as outlined in the 1947 act was to advise the President on integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to national security and to facilitate interagency cooperation. At the President's direction, the NSC could also assess and appraise risks to U.S. national security, consider policies, and then report or make recommendations to the President.

In his retirement President Truman denied any responsibility for "cloak and dagger operations" but it was during his Presidency that covert intelligence operations in support of foreign policy objectives was undertaken on an ever broadening scale. The NSC's first action (NSC 1/1) authorized covert action in the Italian elections. The formal institutionalization of covert actions was established as NSC 4 in December 1947, and NSC 10/2 of June 1948.

In 1949, events reinforced the need for better coordination of national security policy: NATO was formed, military assistance for Europe was begun, the Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb, and the Communists gained control in China. The Department of State seized the opportunity to review U.S. strategic policy and military programs. State won approval of an ad hoc interdepartmental committee under its Policy Planning head, Paul Nitze. Their report, NSC 68, was submitted directly to Truman in February 1950. An NSC committee authorized to consider costs and broader implications of NSC 68 began its work, but before it could be completed the Korean war broke out.

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsc-hst/index.html

[PCIntern]

31. These frigging Republicans

always compare themselves to Democrats so they think that they can get that populist appeal. Kennedy, Truman, even Franklin Roosevelt sometimes. Really pisses me off...then the MSM uses McGovern, Carter, RFK, Stevenson, and all the other progressives as examples of higher-order politicians. This after they trashed them on trivial grounds like a hole in the shoe (Stevenson).

Reminds me of that prick Howard Finnman when he was so laudatory of Kerry after Kerry's unsolicited phone calls to fineman during the latter's cancer treatment recently. He said that Kerry was a great human being - he should have been saying that during the Swift-boating bullshit.

Really pisses me off, these hypocrites. That's why I hate detest and despise Tweety. He's the worst of the lot. Slimy bastard.

I'm obviously in a good mood today...

[Ilsa]

32. Where is Truman's daughter? She raked someone else over the coals

for comparing himself with Truman. Maybe it was Poppy, because I think it was back in 1992 or 1993. She ripped into some Rethuglican, though, for comparing himself to Truman.

[Zorra]

34. Truman grew up on a farm. Bu*h is a spoiled rich kid, raised in

the lap of privelege and luxury.

Bu*h never had to get his hands dirty in his whole life. He has always been told that he is better than everyone else. Everything was handed to him on a silver platter. This is why he is a fascist, completely oblivious as to what it takes to survive in this world if you were not born with a silver spoon in your mouth. He cannot conceive of what it is like to work hard and still not have enough money to pay all the bills. He cannot conceive of what it is like to put his hands in the soil in order to produce the food that you need in order to survive.

Any parallels between Truman and Bu*h come straight from the voices Bu*h hears in his head.

[onehandle]

36. NYT: At West Point, Bush Draws With Fingerpaints. nt

[AnOhioan]

37. Bushboy does have SOME comparisons......

Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao. About the only US President he can get away with is Nixon.

[Sherman A1]

41. The difference

of course, is that Harry knew what he was doing..... and.... shrub, well......

[onager]

42. Try to imagine $hrub saying this...

"I didn’t fire (General MacArthur) because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. I fired him for disobeying orders."

Or this...

"Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in."

Or...

"Nixon is a shifty-eyed goddamn liar...He's one of the few men in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides."

:rofl: