Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Team Takes Shape

Saying “more” and “no” are keys to success.

Roger Kaplan

In forming a conservative foreign policy leadership, you need to hear two words: “More” and “No.” m It appears these are the words President-elect Donald Trump wants to hear as he puts together the team that will defend the United States over the next years.   More defines our defense capability. You cannot have too many guns. You cannot have too many ships and planes and tanks.

Ronald Reagan did not win the long struggle against Soviet communism alone, of course; there was Lech Walesa and John Paul II, there were the freedom fighters in Budapest and Berlin, Cuba, Central America, the Hindu Kush, the savannahs and bush across Africa who resisted the totalitarian imperialism. Often they resisted successfully, with or without our help. Sometimes we let them down, misled them, betrayed them even, and we cannot forget these failures.

All great nations make terrible mistakes of statecraft. The betrayal and abandonment of South Vietnam was about as bad as it got. Ronald Reagan made some whoppers, but he kept remembering those two words. And applying them. Then he said four. “We win. They lose.”........Foggy Bottom is foreign territory; as used to be said, it would be well if there were an American interests section there........To Read More....