President Nixon and Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev have an informal conversation.
Robert Wilkie of Human Events asks the question many Nixon supporters have asked in light of America’s current foreign policy foibles: Where is Dick Nixon when you need him?
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, as Ariel Sharon’s tanks crossed the Suez Canal to cut off the reeling Egyptian Army from its home, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev declared that he was prepared to drop several divisions of paratroopers into the Sinai Desert to protect his Arab client. Within hours of Brezhnev’s statement going public, the entire US Seventh Fleet sailed from its Mediterranean bases. That was how Richard Nixon dealt with Russian provocation.
Apart from the perpetually resentful on the academic left, few would deny that Nixon was the most formidable practitioner of the dark arts of foreign policy in modern America history. He opened up China and ringed the Soviet Union with adversaries. He paved the way for peace between Israel and Egypt by bringing Anwar Sadat out of Moscow’s orbit. He ended the war in Vietnam. His speechwriter Ben Stein recalls that Nixon’s favorite phrase was “we must create a generation of peace”.
Nixon and his right hand Henry Kissinger gave voice to a generation forged in wars against Fascism and Communism and steeped in the harsh diplomatic lessons of the 20th century. They represented the confluence of hard headed practical politics with an encyclopedic knowledge of the historical motivations of America’s friends and enemies.
Roger Stone, Republican political consultant to Presidents spanning from Nixon to George W. Bush, also offers his response to this very relevant question. Click here to read how he thinks the 37th President would handle the Ukraine.