Flash Points USA - America at War - Robert Dallek
Flash Points USA - America at War - Robert Dallek
Flash Points USA - America at War - Robert Dallek (raw interview with Robert Dallek speaking about various Presidents) 07.00.54 Robert Dallek says "In America there is always a domestic political component to going to war", that Franklin Roosevelt understood that "before you can fight a war you need a stable domestic consensus that backs that conflict" continues to say that America didn't enter the war until after Pearl Harbor and by that time he had the full support behind him. Johnson fails on that fact, and he ties in the War in Iraq as well as not having domestic backing, and also Harry Truman in the Korean War. He then mentions Abraham Lincoln, "if there had been more defeats he might well have been defeated in 1864 and you would have a candidate who would have worked out some sort of peace arrangement with the South and allowed them to be an independent state." 07.04.27 Dallek says "Theodore Roosevelt once said that you can't be a great President unless you have a war, but he was thinking back to Lincoln who of course leads the country through the successful Civil War. Woodrow Wilson leads the country through a successful war, but then loses the peace, he does get high marks for having won the war but he is sharply criticized for losing the peace. Roosevelt secures his reputation as one of the three great Presidents because he leads the country in success in WWII, and of course leading the country through the Great Depression." Dallek continues to say that Harry Truman's success was in the Cold War, that eclipses the defeat in Korea. Says "Lyndon Johnson, for all his success on the domestic side, the great society, the war on poverty, civil rights, the Medicare legislation, the federal aid to education, for all these things his reputation is blighted by the defeat in Vietnam. As it's been said, the only war the United States ever lost." 07.05.50 Dallek talks about George W. Bush and his reputation might be blighted by the Iraq War. Mentions George Bush, Sr., and says that he does have a successful war in removing Saddam Hussein and Iraq from Kuwait, but it isn't enough of a success to overcome his problems with the economy. Dallek states the current War in Iraq is a "quagmire like Vietnam." 07.07.04 "Presidents though they will deny it, always think about their historical reputation and losing a war is not a way to secure your reputation as a great President and so once they enter into a conflict like that, their ego is involved, their standing in history is up for grabs and they're not going to back away from that conflict, they're not going to admit errors, they're not going to admit false assumptions, that was true of Johnson, that's true of George W. Bush, Harry Truman wanted to get out, but didn't know how and was trapped there and wouldn't acknowledge that there was a real mistake in crossing the parallel, and these President's are strong willed obviously, and they're stubborn and have big ego's and can be quite grandiose and this comes into play when you're dealing with an issue of this sort." 07.08.20 Dallek says "Napoleon once said "Give me Generals who know something about strategy and tactics, but best of all give me Generals who are lucky". Continues to say "It's not strictly luck, it's being smart about the war you fight, and not getting into a scrap which you're not likely to win. The First George Bush was sensible in not crossing into Iraq, he saw the dangers, he describes them in his memoirs as to what the real dangers were of crossing the line, going into Iraq and taking on the burden, the responsibility of fighting in Iraq. Someone once said to me "the only thing you control in war is the first shot, and then in a sense you're in the lap of the gods."