My Ukrainian friends feared that President Donald Trump will sell them and they now believe that it happens. Recent images of Ukrainian soldiers removing the American flag patches to protest against what they consider betrayal is sad. This can be of little consolation for the moment, but to understand the confusing and disturbing movements of President Trump to a peace agreement in Russia-Ukraine, consider the The king, mice and cheese – A beautifully illustrated book from 1965 from Nancy and Eric Gurney. The king who loves the cheese of a distant land has to face mice infesting his kingdom. The solution – cat! Soon, the felines succeed in stripping the kingdom but taking their place as a public nuisance n ° 1. Thus, another solution must be found – dogs. The canines confuse the cats but begin to cause their own chaos. To come, the lions hunt dogs but … you guessed it. Now what? Elephants to hunt lions. When the pachyderms unleash panic and destruction, only one solution remains: bring the mice back. International relations can be understood in a similar way – sometimes the solution becomes the problem in an apparently endless cycle.
In realistic opinion, there are no permanent solutions in a world tainted by original sin and dominated by great power competition. In simple terms, Trump reverses the merger of President Richard Nixon in February 1972 with China. The catalyst was the aggressive challenge of the Soviet Union through Europe, invading Czechoslovakia in 1968. Despite the direct fight of American China in the Korean War in the 1950s, Beijing and Washington considered the normalization of relations as a bulwark against the USSR. Chinese and Soviet troops engaged in border clashes and seemed to be heading towards the large -scale war. The United States was deeper in the Vietnam War against the southern border of China.
In a global tripolar system, the improvement of Sino-American relationships would both refocus in Moscow. In Craftsmen Bruce Jentleson said that a report by Chinese Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai concluded: “While the United States considered China as a” potential threat “, the Soviet Union considered China” as its main enemy, so it (the Soviet Union) is a greater threat to China’s security than American imperialism. “”
And in their own move of failures: “The United States tries to take advantage of the contradictions between China and the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union is trying to take advantage of the contradictions between China and the United States. We must therefore intentionally benefit from the contradictions between the Soviet Union and the United States. Continuing talks with the United States … was a tactical action that could achieve strategic success (Jentleson, 16).
Thus, in diplomacy characterized as three -level failures, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, with Zhou, opened the door to the historic visit of Nixon with the Chinese leader Mao Zedong. But that involved what seemed to be the public betrayal of a democratic nation – Taiwan, or the Republic of China (ROC). According to Politico Writer James Mann:
Kissinger has made crucial concessions … which have governed and forced American policy towards China and Taiwan to this day. Before Kissinger’s trip, the official position of the United States was that sovereignty on Taiwan was “an unstable question”. But Kissinger promised to Zhou that the United States would not support two Chinese governments (one in Beijing, one in Taipei); that he would also not accept a solution of “a China, a Taiwan”; And, finally, that he would not support an independent Taiwan.
American troops were withdrawn from Taiwan and years later, Washington officially ended diplomatic relations. However, Taiwan has survived as an independent capitalist state, democrat and largely due to American support, even while remaining not recognized by this most praised Liberal institution, the United Nations. (Meanwhile, Trump angry Beijing in February by removing the expression “we do not support the independence of Taiwan” from the messaging of the State Department)
A similar sleight of hand is now at work, but more awkwardly. Putting an end to the Ukraine War will focus on checking China, which actively pursues its declared objective of replacing the United States as the main world military and economic power, according to KT McFarland:
The greatest strategic and existential threat to the United States is not … the Middle East, or even Russia. It comes from a Sino-Russian alliance intended in the United States. Our refusal to speak to Russia in the past three years is one of the reasons why Putin has come closer to Chinese President XI. In the early 1970s, my boss, Henry Kissinger, led a gap between the anti-American anti-American alliance by opening relations with China. Potentially, Trump could do the same thing today, this time reopening relations with Russia.
President Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy as a “dictator” was unpleasant and its characterization of Ukraine as a war initiator (a declaration now returned) was manifestly false. The basis of the GOP was embittered on Zelenskyy for an alleged corruption and waste of taxpayers’ money. The new Zeitgeist in Washington is that of national roots and in foreign policy (consider the fate of USAID).
Trump’s pro-Russian pro-Russian pivot culminated on February 24 with a disappointing opposition from America to a United Nations resolution condemning the unjustified and brutal invasion of Putin on his three-year anniversary. What emerged instead was a Milquetoast resolution looking for a rapid end to sustainable conflict and peace. That said, Zelenskyy had no lever or political license effect to conclude an agreement with Putin and former President Biden made no real opening for peace. Thus, negotiations by necessity had to be in Washington and Moscow. The Paeans for Putin brought them to the table for a quick reset driven by a two -part emergency – the destruction and the victims now estimated at 1 million and allow Washington to pivot more completely in Beijing.
The congress affected $ 163.6 billion to help Ukraine survive and in fact over-performance to repel Russian and Russian blood forces. The Ukrainians inflicted heavy losses and exposed the Red Army praised as a tightness of First World War style meat supported by missiles. Russia has been damaged militarily, economically and reputation in the world. But kyiv cannot win. The sending of weapons and more lethal planes could have changed the trajectory, but that would only intensify and prolong what is now the definition of a dead end.
It was said: “Only Nixon could go to China.” Likewise, perhaps only Trump can end the worst war in Europe since the Second World War. Thus, his somewhat shocking role of the bad cop, while allowing a special envoy to remove us the lieutenant-general Keith Kellogg to be the right cop. A peace agreement seems possible which will allow Ukraine to survive and perhaps fight another day. The Ukrainians will deplore him as a betrayal during the reconstruction of their nation, which showed in massive demonstrations that it has democracy and independence in its DNA.
As a survivor of Nazi Germany, the Jewish Kissinger was criticized for the foreign policy which seemed to be absent. Jentleson notes that Kissinger’s “realpolitik” was a “pragmatic accent on interests, and not on ideology” in order to reach large -scale changes that have benefited millions. In the case of Taiwan, endangering a peaceful democratic nation. Time magazine’s Magazine’s Billology concluded:
After all, the relaxation between Washington and Beijing has always been rooted not in mutual appreciation but shared the enmity of the Soviet Union. With his gaze firmly on the Saper Moscow, Washington was willing to engage with Beijing in the hope that China reform would open and democratize. But the latter has never occurred. The status of Taiwan, just like when Kissinger sat with Zhou more than half a century ago, remains the most combustive problem.
Realpolitik has returned and it is not pleasant to look at. But more than 50 years after the disturbing handshake of the American president with a tyrant, helped dismantle the USSR, China is now the elephant in the room.
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