Foreign Policy from Patton, Reagan, and Obama

By Robert Orlando

What do Reagan, Patton, and Obama have in common?  The answer: they have all faced significant challenges abroad – aggressive action by Stalin, Brezhnev, or Putin, or by despots in the Middle East.  All have had to deploy U.S. forces, and all have had to confront the question of when to pull out.  We know that nature abhors a vacuum, and so does geopolitics; a pull-out of troops all too often creates a vacuum that fills with blood.

In 1945, As World War 2 was racing to an end, General George S. Patton firmly believed that the U.S., led by his massive 3rd Army, should continue east and take Berlin, Prague, and Vienna before the Russians could gain a foothold.  He was ordered to "pull back" by Eisenhower, and in the ensuing forty years, Eastern Europe was frozen in time by the Cold War.

Patton warned that a strong German defense would be imperative, as would maintaining the former Panzer forces.  Considered a crazy idea at the time, it became policy when NATO was formed only a few years later during Truman's presidency........With a powerful military and the economic engine of free-market capitalism – far superior to the Russian system – Reagan gambled that an escalated race for military superiority would starve the enemy.  It worked!.......... Obama felt it necessary to apologize for American policy and thought it better that we lead from behind, not projecting strength, but restraining power in the name of diplomacy........To Read More.....