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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Arthur Herman at the WSJ looks at the lessons learned from Carterism, and suggests that Obama can avoid some of the pitfalls that occurred during Carter's tenure. More:
"The result of the 1976 election," Michael Barone writes, "was Democratic government as far as the eye could see." After the debacle of Vietnam, Jimmy Carter entered office determined to clean up America's image abroad. Abetting him in his endeavor was the fact that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress by a substantial majority, while Republicans were broken and dispirited. Much as with Mr. Obama and his team today, the basic operating assumption of the Carter team was that U.S. assertiveness abroad, or what Sen. William Fulbright called America's "arrogance of power," had become the primary source of international tension. It was time for a humbler, gentler posture: The post-World War II Pax Americana was over, discredited by Vietnam, and so were the Cold War assumptions on which it was based.
These assumptions quickly resulted in the Soviets taking immediate advantage of perceived American weakness. Between Panama, Nicaraugua, Iran and other Latin American and African states, rule by communist dictatorship was on the march throughout Carter's presidency. Now, we face the danger of Islamic fundamentalism, ignored or under-estimated by many, yet an active and ready force for negative change, nonetheless. Preventing this advance, by keeping pressure on Iran, Syria and the mullahs holed up along the Afghan / Pakistan border, will be the key issue to deal with, along with containing a resurgent Russia that is careening back towards dictatorship via rule by brute force. Management of these situations is Obama's challenge. He must not swing too far to the dove position (especially as many of his followers urge), or it will only embolden our enemies. The retention of Robert Gates and the appointment of James Jones are good signs for American foreign policy, but the lessons of history must be learned and remembered, else we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Read the whole piece for a more complete history of the failures of Carterism. Hopefully someone in the new Administration will as well.

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