A friend of the Worldwide Standard sends along some thoughts on the recent op-ed piece, “The Real Choice in Iraq,” penned by President Carter’s national security advisor. He writes: In his January 8, 2006 op-ed in the Washington Post, Zbigniew Brzezinski, in enumerating his criticisms of the Bush Administration, wrote this:
I thought it might be interesting to find out specifically who Mr. Brzezinski may have had in mind in ridiculing the “apocalyptic predictions” (dominoes falling, the region exploding and U.S. power discredited) if America failed to win in Vietnam. It turns out he might have had in mind someone like the Director of the Research Institute on Communist Affairs and professor of law and government at Columbia University in the 1960s: Zbigniew Brzezinski. In a March 1, 1964 op-ed in the Washington Post (“‘Neutral’ Viet-Nam a Chinese Backyard: Noted Student of Communism Says De Gaulle Suggestion Would Be U.S. Defeat and A Handover to Peking”), Mr. Brzezinski responded to a press conference by French President Charles de Gaulle, who concluded that the United States was neither capable nor had the will to stay in Southeast Asia. President de Gaulle argued for the “neutralization” of South Viet-Nam — de Gaulle’s gracious way of handing the area over to the Chinese, Mr. Brzezinski said. And what did Mr. Brzezinski think of this recommendation? Not much. In his op-ed, Mr. Brzezinski wrote that it would “be nothing less than an American defeat. Furthermore, it would leave Southeast Asia without any countervailing political force to that of China. In effect, it would transform that area into a Chinese political back yard.” And then, under the heading “A Row of Dominos” (!), Mr. Brzezinski wrote this:
Mr. Brzezinski concludes his op-ed this way:
Next time Mr. Brzezinski might want to consult his own past writings in order to avoid sharply criticizing them.
