Some people think it was a dud.
While others think it was a fake.
But, at least the Russians are impressed. Russian news release.
Useful summary from Q&O.
Aram Bakshi says it’s all George W. Bush’s fault. And Tim F., John Cole’s pocket-edition Grima Wormtongue, agrees.
Ben Johnson blames Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
I think you can go right back to Harry Truman on this one. He should have allowed MacArthur to win the war. Truman provided the still commonly-implemented model of wasting American money and lives in pursuit of lesser objectives than victory. In the case of Vietnam, avoiding aiming at victory ultimately produced defeat. The original version of the policy was so good a choice, that, technically speaking, we’re still engaged in Harry Truman’s unfinished war.
The Other Steve
But isn’t it really Herbert Hoover’s fault?
I mean when you really look at this from all angles, all the shit flows right back to Hoover.
That explanation certainly makes more sense than blaming Truman.
The Pirate
Right, because letting MacArthur nuke China back to the Han Dynasty was a perfectly rational idea and not at all batshit insane.
Balloon Juice
[…] Tim (excuse me, Grima Wormtongue) discussed this last night in depth, and Glenn Greenwald has more today, but this story certainly will be the topic of much discussion: […]
BadTux
Excuse me, but Truman was President only for the first two years of the Korean War. Where’s the love for General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was the President for the last two years of the war?! Apparently President Eisenhower agreed with Truman that nuking China was likely to result in the Soviets intervening directly — and with two divisions that should have been in Europe to hold off the Soviets instead being in Korea to hold off the Chinese, that would have meant nuclear war in Europe as we nuked the invading Soviet troops (we certainly couldn’t have stopped them short of nukes with the undermanned underequipped divisions left in Europe) and the invading Soviets promptly turned all of Western Europe’s major cities into radioactive rubble (the Soviets *did* have the bomb, remember?). Some “victory” that would have been… “winning” but everyone we were supposedly defending turned into radioactive mist?!
I don’t know what the solution to the Korean issue could have been. But given that Ike could have called Macarthur back to finish the job and didn’t, it’s hard to blame Truman alone. And given that a very smart man (Ike) apparently agreed with Truman about the proper course of the war means that maybe, just maybe, both of them were right?
Thermage
very gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood site….
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