Flash Points USA - America at War - Colleen Shogun
Flash Points USA - America at War - Colleen Shogun
Flash Points USA - America at War - Colleen Shogun (speaking about various Presidents) 04.20.24 Colleen Shogun says President Johnson's "legacy is complicated by Vietnam, it's so complicated he can't bare to run again. Once again, we elect someone to the Presidency who promises to end our involvement in Vietnam, just like Eisenhower promised to end out involvement in Korea. Which is interesting to me because it seems if John Kerry was attentive to History he would promise to end the involvement in Iraq, because it's been successful in at least two other elections in recent history, it seems to be a preferable position to the American people when we are involved in an unpopular war." 04.21.24 Colleen Shogun states that President Truman was willing to act independently, he defies the Taft-Hartley Act, seizes the steel mills, institutes committees on civil rights, he's willing to step out of Congress' shadow and act independently. She continues to say that "the Presidency is an institution that rewards independence." ......"There may be an active independence that instigates warfare, that instigates a foreign conflict, the question is can those continued acts of independence actually control what is going on..." She says that "we don't have a stable structure for ending a war and we see this as problematic, both in the Korean War, the Vietnam War and perhaps even now in the Iraq War. Who gets to end an unpopular war?" 04.25.18 Speaking about President John F. Kennedy, she states that his legacy doesn't reflect the Vietnam War, that "if you asked most Americans when the Vietnam War started, they would certainly think of LBJ and not John Kennedy." She talks about President's Lyndon Johnson s withdrawal from the Democratic Nomination. 04.27.56 Colleen Shogun speaks about FDR, that he has a double pronged legacy, because he creates the welfare state in America, creates the New Deal, also encapsulated in the war (WWII). She continues to say "there is a trace of Lincoln in FDR" because of his passive side, the lend lease program, his aid to Britain etc.. before Pearl Harbor. 04.29.38 "We know that President's benefit from a "rallying around the flag" effect, but it's not clear that that "rallying around the flag" effect lasts .....