Flash Points USA - America at War - James Thorber
Flash Points USA - America at War - James Thorber
Flash Points USA - America at War - James Thorber (raw material of interview with James Thorber, answers questions related to various Presidents) 03.08.48 James Thorber mentions Presidents who have rushed into battle, joking about George W. Bush saying "Well, there's one quite recent," (laughing) Thorber mentions President Jimmy Carter "In trying to rescue the hostages in our embassy in Iran, he had a rescue mission that many people think did not have enough force to succeed, and it broke down in the desert and it was not a war, but it certainly led to the perception that he wasn't a great President and it helped defeat him I think in the next election." 03.09.40 "I think that we have also with George W. Bush, an individual that rushed into war with Iraq, without having complete information about what was going on and many people criticize him for not looking at other alternatives to this war. Another successful aspect of modern Presidents is to use many nations to back a particular activity. George Bush Sr. had 45 nations in the UN behind his action to drive Saddam out of Kuwait, he had 17 nations that were actually on the ground with troops and material, he had money from many nations, 80 billion dollars was estimated from foreign nations. This President (George W. Bush), I have to say this, had 3 nations the United Kingdom, England and Great Britain and that's it." (jokingly says you can edit that out) Continues to add that Bush did not use the UN and has been criticized for that. 03.11.01 Thorber continues "The United States had the allies during WWII, we had a coalition during WWI, we had the support of the UN in driving the North Koreans out of South Korea, a resolution of the UN, and of course General Macarthur pushed it a little two far north and then the Chinese came in and he was fired, but the President fired him and we stopped at the 38th parallel with South Korea." 03.11.59 James Thorber speaking about President Harry Truman "Truman's legacy has improved over the years, it's aging like good wine. It was controversial with some and today, when he dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to effectively stop the war in Japan and it's not controversial with many soldiers that would have been slaughtered in the invasion. Truman was a machine politician from St. Louis, Missouri, everyone thought he was an errand guy who became Vice President because he played poker with the right people, but he stood up to the job. And that's an aspect of the Presidency that's very interesting in America is that the institution of the Presidency has support mechanisms that help people, even a Truman, he turns out to be quite a war President in dropping the bomb, but also driving the North Koreans out of South Korea and doing it without permission from Congress. And you do know that we haven't had a "declaration of war" since WWII and the War Powers Act of 1973 is basically ignored, because both sides Congress and the President feel that it's unconstitutional, but he was the first person to really pursue a war after WWII that without getting permission basically from the hill." 03.14.18 James Thorber says "I think Presidents are best when leading the nation with respect to national security when there is a clear external threat. Now, there was a clear external threat of course with Hitler in WWII, there was a clear external threat with the Soviet Union for many years until Vietnam, there was not consensus in society. It's very important to have consensus in society about the threat and consensus about the mission, we had that in WWII, we had that in the Cold War." Continues to say that there was not a clear consensus with Lincoln, says he showed "real leadership", also says we didn't have a consensus with the current Iraq War. Thorber continues to state that this war will be a "failure" if the President or future President doesn t engage the International community to keep the various factions and tribes from creating a "civil war". 03.18.12 James Thorber says that the threat in World War One was the expansionistic regime of Germany, trade sanctions, economic reasons, Wilson was able to rally America, and successfully influenced the press. Mentions that America looks as Woodrow Wilson as a failure because of the League of Nations." 03.20.00 Speaking about JFK Thorber says "John F. Kennedy has a great reputation in the history of Presidencies, part of it has to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis which was a very risky thing that he did, it stemmed from a miscalculation of using Cuban immigrates and others to invade the Bay of Pigs in Cuba." Continues to state that "Khrushchev thought he (Kennedy) was too young, a kid and he could push him around, and he stood up to him, and that's the myth if not the reality of John F. Kennedy." Continues to explain that Kennedy relied on data and information from the Eisenhower administration, which led us into Vietnam and says "the seeds of failure started with John F. Kennedy, but we don't look at Kennedy as the person who failed there. We think of Johnson as the failure and Nixon not keeping his promise to get out and invading Cambodia and then eventually forced out, and the War Powers Act limited his power." 03.21.40 James Thorber speaks about President Johnson's legacy, saying "LBJ does have a great legacy on the war on poverty, on the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, some of the most important legislation for individuals of color, for women, for the poor in America come from the Johnson Administration and he ruined that because of the situation in Vietnam."