How did this blunder rank with prior diplomatic and military screw-ups, like Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s January 1950 Press Club speech de facto excluding South Korea from the American defense umbrella—an omission that may have contributed to the June 1950 North Korean invasion of the South? Did it rank with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley secretly contacting his Chinese communist counterpart, Chinese Gen. Li Zuocheng, to tell him he would give the People’s Liberation Army leader a heads-up if he determined President Donald Trump was likely to trigger an existential war? And perhaps most importantly, all Trump high appointees and their staffers should know enough to have nothing to do with those who wake up each morning wishing to destroy them—and go to bed each night lamenting that they have not done enough to advance that destruction.
Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Published at: 2025-03-29 13:39:06
Still want to read the full version? Full article
