When President-elect Trump takes office, he’ll inherit a political climate conditioned to view Russia with a fearful eye. To many inside the Beltway, Russophobia is a way of life. Russia is aggressive, nationalistic and accustomed to flexing too much muscle. As if that’s not enough, its current president is ex-KGB.
But in a world in which radical Islamic terror has replaced the Evil Empire of the 80s, is it wise to view Moscow through a Cold War lens? In a world in which China – with more people and a stronger economy than Russia – has grown even more bellicose, is it wise to push Moscow away, making them a reluctant ally of Beijing?
Trump has told the American people his answer to this question: no.
“I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly, but there’s nothing I can think of that I’d rather do than have Russia friendly, as opposed to the way they are right now, so that we can go and knock out ISIS with other people,” candidate Trump said at a July press conference. After he won, Trump remained committed to averting a second Cold War and attempting to thaw relations with Russia.
In reaching out to Russia, Trump is breaking with a neo-conservative script that has long held Russia as a natural adversary of the United States. Russia, so goes the argument, is on the wrong side when it comes to Iran, Syria and China.
But who pushed Russia away? How did we lose Russia when President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev laid the foundation for an enduring U.S. alliance with a communist-free Russia?
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States was at a crossroads. With the greatest global threat of the 20th century averted, the U.S. could return to the constitutional republic she once was or listen to a growing crowd of neo-conservatives who believed this was the beginning of American hegemony. U.S. leaders chose the latter.
In doing so, President Clinton pushed NATO to Russia’s doorstep when he successfully lobbied for the admission of the old Soviet satellites of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in 1999. Emboldened by U.S. expansion at the expense of a weakened Russia, a number of countries formed the Vilnius group and were granted NATO membership in 2002: Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Russians who were always skeptical of the West on their doorstep – memories of Napoleon and Hitler loom large – saw a nation that was supposed to be their ally making unnecessary foreign expansions at a time Russia was unable to protest. And can we say the Russians were wrong?
Eisenhower avoided a war with Moscow over Hungary in 1956. Clinton, the man who dodged his military duties, handed the Hungarian government the type of war guarantee that ignited the very war in which Eisenhower fought.
The Russian response was to turn to a man like Putin, a man who embodied the shirtless Russian alpha male the country longed for. When Putin came to power he remembered how Mother Russia was treated by the West when she was weak and he welcomed joint naval drills with China. U.S. foreign policy pushed Moscow into Beijing’s waiting arms even though the two nations had a long history of distrust.
This, of course, is one of the biggest foreign policy blunders of our lifetime. Imagine how different the world would be if Russia was an ally in containing China. Imagine how different the world would be if we had Russia’s support in pressuring North Korea. Imagine how the war on terror would be if Russian and American forces were working together.
Trump is about to take a chance and fight for this vision of the world. Is it a risk? Sure. But it sure beats the last two decades of a failed anti-Russian foreign policy.
Joseph Murray is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He was a former campaign official for Pat Buchanan. He is the author of “Odd Man Out” and is administrator of the LGBTrump Facebook page. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
