Last week, a contingent of U.S. dignitaries was in Brussels, Belgium, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A centerpiece of the commemoration is the unveiling of a statue of Missouri’s own Harry Truman, the American president who oversaw the creation of this vital international government and military alliance that has served as the West’s buffer against Russian aggression for decades.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of NATO to the world order and relative stability that we in the West have enjoyed for most of our lifetimes. And we can never, ever take it for granted.
First, a little history lesson: President Truman made one of the most consequential decisions any world leader had ever faced when he dropped two nuclear bombs and ended the carnage of World War II. But one of the Allies who helped win that war, the Soviet Union, did not share America and Great Britain’s devotion to democracy. Truman, U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other leaders rightly viewed revolutionary Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin as bent on world domination, posing as great a threat to liberty as the German Nazi and Imperial Japanese forces they had just defeated.
In a 1947 speech to Congress, the president laid out his Truman Doctrine — “America’s answer to the surge of expansion of Communist tyranny” — and the Cold War was on. And on April 4, 1949, NATO was formed with 12 founding nations making a pledge: If one ally is attacked, all allies are attacked. Today, its membership has grown to 32, with Russia’s neighbors Sweden and Finland signing on only recently.
“NATO and the other elements of President Truman’s postwar arsenal largely kept the peace throughout the Cold War and continues to protect democracy and perpetuate peace,” said Alex Burden, executive director of the Truman Library Institute, who was in Belgium last week for NATO’s birthday along with Kurt Graham, library director, and Clifton Truman Daniel, the president’s grandson. “It is a vital part of President Truman’s enduring legacy of leadership.”
Make no mistake: Russia’s expansionist appetite is not a thing of the past. President Vladimir Putin believes Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reforms were a mistake. He has dominated his country’s political and strategic direction for decades, and his invasion of Ukraine was a key strategy to expand its waning influence — “hoping to restore the glory days of the Soviet Union in the 1950s, when it was at the peak of its power,” in the words of Politico reporter Gabriel Gavin.
And unfortunately, Donald Trump has a dictator envy problem. The 91-times-indicted ex-president who was found legally liable for sexual abuse and massive business fraud is at the top of the Republican Party’s ticket yet again. He makes little secret of his admiration for the world authoritarians who — they think — enjoy the fawning praise of the people they oppress.
Chinese President Xi Jinping? “He’s a strong gentleman, right? Anybody that — he’s a strong guy, tough guy.”
On Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: “He’s the boss and he’s a great leader, fantastic leader.”
And of course, the world watched in disbelief at a 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland, when Trump debased himself and our nation, glad-handing Putin while denying the overwhelming conclusion of his own U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had, indeed, interfered in the 2016 election. “President Putin says it’s not Russia,” said Trump. “I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
The reason why not, of course, is the ex-president’s shatteringly fragile ego. And our former KGB agent adversary sees Trump’s soul.
Retired Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s second chief of staff, is only one of the ex-president’s former protectors who are raising alarms about his authoritarian aspirations as he takes his third consecutive run at office. Trump’s already told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he would be a “dictator” on “Day 1.”
So let’s all quit pretending there’s a difference between Trump’s rhetoric and what he actually accomplishes. For all his ineptitude during his four tumultuous years in office, he still managed to install the judicial machinery to keep right-wing policy steamrolling over individual rights for years to come.
Some of Trump’s fans like to compare his bomb-throwing style to the good old “Give ‘em hell, Harry” spirit. Wrong. Truman wasn’t a norm-buster, and was above all else an institutionalist. A clear-eyed, pragmatic leader who understood that machines fall apart if they aren’t carefully maintained.
So thank Harry Truman, Churchill and the other visionaries who understood they had to come together to fight the Soviets’ ambitions as a team. And, please, take Trump seriously when he vows that if he gets back to the White House and Russia invades a sovereign nation, he’ll let it “do whatever the hell it wants.”
