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Dwight Eisenhower. He was pretty much the last President who looked to the good of the nation as a whole as opposed to being driven by narrow political or ideological interests.
I agree.
But then, I always felt that failing to elect Barry Goldwater was a great mistake! He would be my second choice.
Dwight Eisenhower. He was pretty much the last President who looked to the good of the nation as a whole as opposed to being driven by narrow political or ideological interests.
Nailed it here. He knew the dangers of becoming too close to the military industrial complex and called it decades ago. I only wish more of us were willing to listen.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Cyrus of Persia. How many guys had glowing reviews written by the people conquered by them?
Catherine the Great of Russia would be cool too. A visionary, charismatic leader who improved the lives of peasants and maintained a strong military. She had a harem of men, I'd love to hear Mike Huckabee's commentary on that lol.
My choice would be Ronald "Tear down that wall" Reagan
While I greatly respect Reagan the man, Reagan the President was simply very lucky, he did some very careless and dangerous things that could have backfired badly.
What really brought the Soviet Union down was the drastic drop in the crude oil prices, which from what I read was in some part due to Saudis so enraged at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that they deliberately sunk the oil prices knowing that it was the main source of currency for the Soviets.
Couple with it the fact that Gorbachev was a genuine believer in disarmament and stepping back the "nuclear holocaust" clock.
If Andropov lived just 10 years more, Reagan's Star Wars could end up either in a massive recession or in a nuclear exchange with the freaked out USSR. Compared to Gorbachev, the KGB man Andropov was a very different figure, ideologically rigid and not afraid of drastic action. Luckily for humanity he was already very sick by the time he replaced Brezhnev. Had he lived longer, I can see him and Ronny locking horns.
If Andropov lived just 10 years more, Reagan's Star Wars could end up either in a massive recession or in a nuclear exchange with the freaked out USSR. Compared to Gorbachev, the KGB man Andropov was a very different figure, ideologically rigid and not afraid of drastic action. Luckily for humanity he was already very sick by the time he replaced Brezhnev. Had he lived longer, I can see him and Ronny locking horns.
What we learned later was that Andropov knew the USSR had irrevocably lost the Cold War. He had calculated--in his old, hardcore Soviet way--that the US could launch a first strike and suffer "acceptable" (in the old, hardcore Soviet viewpoint) casualties, wiping out the Soviet Union. Moreover, he truly believed Reagan would do it.
We didn't know that at the time--we were still playing Cold War brinksmanship games. But in the 90s when the US gained more old Soviet documents, there were collective and individual shivers that went down a lot of spines. Nobody really understood how edgy Andropov was, but in hindsight, it's clear.
Here is one example of those times, exercise ABLE ARCHER 83, which spelled four days of personal terror for me. This is a pretty good write-up, but what it doesn't say is that in the Strategic Air Command "Strategic Air Combat Center" (the Undeground Command Post), we had to assume that the Soviets would not be called from the brink, and for four days we were preparing for nuclear war as furiously as we could.
I recall the generals' faces were gray as concrete during that time. There was one colonel who struck a bit of gallows humor: "Damn, we just bought a house."
What we learned later was that Andropov knew the USSR had irrevocably lost the Cold War. He had calculated--in his old, hardcore Soviet way--that the US could launch a first strike and suffer "acceptable" (in the old, hardcore Soviet viewpoint) casualties, wiping out the Soviet Union. Moreover, he truly believed Reagan would do it.
We didn't know that at the time--we were still playing Cold War brinksmanship games. But in the 90s when the US gained more old Soviet documents, there were collective and individual shivers that went down a lot of spines. Nobody really understood how edgy Andropov was, but in hindsight, it's clear.
Here is one example of those times, exercise ABLE ARCHER 83, which spelled four days of personal terror for me. This is a pretty good write-up, but what it doesn't say is that in the Strategic Air Command "Strategic Air Combat Center" (the Undeground Command Post), we had to assume that the Soviets would not be called from the brink, and for four days we were preparing for nuclear war as furiously as we could.
I recall the generals' faces were gray as concrete during that time. There was one colonel who struck a bit of gallows humor: "Damn, we just bought a house."
Yep, that's the problem. Ronald Reagan was in some ways not unlike Jimmy Carter - a man of strong personal convictions that could cloud his judgement and lead him to making rash decisions with an unpredictable outcome.
While I can't see Reagan deliberately initiating a nuclear first strike, I was at the time (early 80s) concerned that he was unnecessarily provoking the USSR and endangering our future by overspending on some Hollywood-inspired defense scheme. Luckily, I was young and stupid and didn't know 1/10th of the things I know now, or I'd be scared ****less.
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