Putin Should Learn From LBJ?

Sometimes you read articles that seems plausible on the surface - until you think about the position the author is taking. Such is this rather silly article titled Putin Should Study Lyndon Johnson's Folly.

The author finds parallels between what LBJ did in Vietnam and what Putin is currently doing in Ukraine.

A president elected by a record-setting margin stumbles into an ill-advised war. Soon, he is abandoned by allies foreign and domestic. His army -- once considered to be one of the best in the world -- lapses into chaos. An antiwar movement advises young men on how to avoid the draft by various means, including leaving the country. If this sounds like Vladimir Putin, it is. But it could also describe Lyndon Johnson's fate a half-century ago.

LBJ was elected in a free election in a republic. Putin was elected in a rigged election in a communist country. LBJ involved his country in a failed effort to defend a free people against invasion by a determined communist force. Putin leads a communist force determined to swallow up a free country.

A more accurate parallel should be drawn between Putin and Ho Chi Minh. Both leaders weren't concerned about the loss of large numbers of their military to achieve their objective. Both leaders were unconcerned about world opinion and allowed vicious war crimes to be committed, then used propaganda to claim they never happened. Both leaders counted on the free world losing patience or becoming unwilling to continue sacrificing to defend the innocent. Both leaders sought to overthrow a democratic free country and subsume it under their control and authority. And both leaders counted on the fools ot the free world to think that they could be reasoned with.

The reason the Republic of South Vietnam no longer exists is because the United States' leaders were either tricked into thinking that they could reason with communists or naive enough to think that they could be reasonsed with and that they could trust them to keep their promises. That is one of the lessons of the Vietnam War that has never been learned and continues to be ignored today.

America's leadership today is just as gullible as the LBJ regime. They believe that Putin can be reasoned with, that he thinks like a Westerner and can be persuaded by the use of power and diplomacy. Neither Putin nor any other communist leader cares one whit what the world thinks and what the world wants. The only calculus they concern themselves with is how long it will take for the western world to give up and go away so they can conintue their conquest of the world. If we wanted to learn anything from history, we should learn that.