Historical oversight

“You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext.”

That was the reasonable – although historically inaccurate -- assertion made by Secretary of State John Kerry on Face the Nation this morning. He made a similar statement on NBC’s Meet the Press as part of the White House campaign to show Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that we’re really, really mad about the possibility he’s send troops into the Ukraine.



Kerry’s declaration, made with a straight face, no doubt put one of those scary KBGesque smirks on Putin’s face. The statement, especially from Kerry, should have made Americans wince.

It was Kerry who became a spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans against the War, after returning from Vietnam, where he’d earned a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts. He appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1971.

“In our opinion and from our experience,” he told the senators then, “there is nothing in South Vietnam which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart.”

John Kerry in 1971 when right and wrong seemed clearer.

In other words, our reasons for being in Vietnam were trumped up. Not that Vietnam was this nation’s last invasion based on trumped up claims. There also was our deadly and costly adventure in Iraq, the future consequences of which remain to play out.

Kerry was right to chide Putin over the developing crisis in the Ukraine. He was wrong to imply by omission that other countries are the only ones that have made such blunders.“You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests,” he told David Gregory on Meet the Press.

The history of international relations indicates otherwise, including the U.S. history Kerry chose to ignore on Sunday.