JFK Replay: "Naive" Obama Right on Foreign Policy - Sorenson

[illinoisprogressive]

JFK's speechwriter Ted Soreson writes in today's Des Moines Register:


Obama is not the first young senator running for president to discomfort the Washington foreign-policy establishment by speaking frankly on a subject displeasing to an American ally. Fifty years ago this summer, a 40-year-old first-term senator, John F. Kennedy, called on the Senate floor for the U.S. government to pressure its French ally into halting its war against Algerian independence.

The response from all quarters - both French and American, both Republican and Democratic - was swift and overwhelmingly negative. Kennedy's critics used words such as "juvenile" (former Truman Secretary of State Dean Acheson), "brashly political and damaging" (Vice President Richard Nixon), an "oversimplification" (President Dwight D. Eisenhower), and "immature" (a senior congressional ally of Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson). A New York Times columnist called Kennedy a "well-intentioned but amateur statesman."

In time, the French realized that Kennedy's advice was not the "unthinkable error" they had initially termed it, and they departed Algeria. Kennedy's keen understanding of nationalist aspirations in the post-colonial era, as demonstrated in his Algerian initiative, was the reason he refused to send combat troop divisions to Vietnam and instead sent food, Peace Corps volunteers and diplomats to less developed nations around the world.

That record - not the traditional nay-sayers in Washington who copy Bush's "politics of fear" - represents the proudest past of the Democratic Party. Obama - though he, too, is called amateur and naive - represents its future.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/OPINION01/708200302/1035/RSS03

[AtomicKitten]

1. I agree.

I think Obama's foreign policy stance is right-on.

It's a fresh perspective for a new direction.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. Exactly. Love your pic by the way

[AtomicKitten]

3. thanks!

two of my favorite fellas

[Ethelk2044]

4. He is so correct

[zulchzulu]

5. Thanks for the link and great OP. K&R n/t

[sandnsea]

6. New School Realism

I like his approach.

It's nice that so many are stepping up to get his back.

[Colobo]

7. Good stuff!

[flpoljunkie]

8. Perhaps particularly helpful that this Sorensen op-ed published in the Des Moines Register

Obama does represent the party's future. It is time to "turn the page."

Chuck Todd, formerly of Hotline, now NBC's political director, said the Iowans take their "first in the nation" responsibility seriously, and that they would--in regard to Hillary Clinton--be seriously considering the recrntly discussed issue of electability, along with other considerations before they vote.

[jmp]

9. "was the reason he refused to send combat troop divisions to Vietnam"

:rofl:

That's right ... he only sent 15,000+ "military advisers" to Vietnam.