The June 12 meeting in Singapore between Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong‑un has generated a bewildering array of responses from observers around the world. These responses do not fall along predictable ideological lines. Back and forth across the ideological span, we find everything from cautious optimism to outrage.
That alone warns against confident pronouncements about what the dialogue between Trump and Kim may produce. We’re reminded, too, that this is far from the first time an American president has engaged with a dictator and his regime, often in the face of sharp criticism. Dwight Eisenhower hosted Joseph Stalin’s loyal subordinate Nikita Khrushchev at Camp David. Ronald Reagan received Mikhail Gorbachev at the White House when the Soviet Union’s gulags were very much operational. Richard Nixon visited Mao Zedong, a man responsible for the deaths of 60 million people.
