Guest Post: Who Would Name a Baby Vladimir?
Columnist, author, and military historian Dr. William Hamilton provides perspective on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Dr. William Hamilton’s biography is too long to publish here. Suffice to say it is distinguished, accomplished, and meaningful. The native Oklahoman and Nebraska political veteran is a highly decorated US Army and Air Force veteran of 20 years, much of that served in West Germany and other European nations. He’s a graduate of the Naval War College. He’s an accomplished historian, pilot, and sailing instructor. He now writes columns under the moniker, “Central View.” He and his equally accomplished aviator-author-spouse, Dr. Penny Hamilton, have been married for 50 years.
Most recently, he’s the author of “War During Peace: A Strategy for Defeat,” a definitive book about the Vietnam War from someone who was there. It published around the time of Joe Biden’s shameful and disastrous Afghanistan surrender and withdrawal last August. Talk about timely and lessons unlearned. Proceeds from books sales go to help veterans. From my review of his superb book on Amazon.com:
What I like about Bill's book is this: It covers all aspects of warfare - political and military - with a focus on vision (or mission), strategy, tactics, and operations. He provides both a 30,000-foot view and one from the ground. Anyone who served in that war or any hostile encounters since will find much to relate with. For the rest of us, it is illustrative and instructive.
Hamilton exposes President Johnson for a couple of things. First, his distrust of the military. Sound familiar? President Biden clearly eschewed advice from his military professionals and well. How has that worked out? Second, Johnson "served" in the military all of a month as a Lt. Commander to have the airplane he was riding in was shot at (missed) by an enemy aircraft. He cajoled the military into having a Silver Star awarded to him. That rankles and qualifies as stolen valor, in my view.
Hamilton confirms that we benefit from civilian leaders with real military experience. There are exceptions. Ronald Reagan's military experience was making films, and Jimmy Carter was a Naval Academy Graduate and submarine officer. But at a minimum, we need leaders who are well schooled and respectful of military culture, experience, and training. Hamilton reinforces that.
Remember my friend’s sage advice and historical perspective when you vote. You can read all of Bill’s superb work and learn more about his history at his website, central-view.com. You can also listen to Bill on a Colorado talk show featured on Denver’s KOA radio on Monday - details below.
"Central View," by William Hamilton, J.D., Ph.D.
Vladimir? Who would name a baby Vladimir?
In 2019, the Trump Administration asked Professor Angelo Codevilla, a professor emeritus of International Relations at Boston University, to write a memo as to what a truly "America first" foreign policy ought to be. A few months later, de Codevilla responded with 65,000 words of wisdom. Not surprisingly, Professor de Codevilla was prescient with regard to what U.S. relations with Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic Nations, and NATO ought to be.
Starting with the Clinton administration, de Codevilla faulted the U.S. for not understanding the post-Soviet ambitions and limitations of Russia. For example, the U.S. did not understand Russia's fear of invasion from the West or how Russians feel that they are the saviors of Western Civilization by turning back the Mongol hordes, by preserving Christianity from destruction by the Ottoman Muslim zealots, by helping free Europe from the rule of Napoleon, and by making possible the Allied victory in World War II by defeating Hitler's invasion of the USSR.
Moreover, some Russians, President Putin in particular, think Russia's return to true world power status requires Ukraine and the Baltic States back under Russian control. Or, at least, looking more toward Russia than to the West. Professor de Codevilla faults all post-Soviet American administrations, including that of President G.W. Bush, for pushing the USSR's former satellite nations toward membership in NATO.
Okay, Professor. But after Putin began to dismember Georgia and then seized Crimea, can the former Soviet satellite states be blamed for wanting a closer relationship with NATO?
"U.S. liberals, wrote de Codevilla, "believed the Soviet Union's dissolution was impossible, and conservatives flatter themselves that they caused it. ...Then, our establishment was well-nigh unanimous that Russia would evolve in a liberal direction. A decade of deep but ignorant involvement in Russia's internal affairs followed...
"The Clinton administration's combined ignorance and self-contradiction by trying to load onto Russia the hopes that the U.S. establishment had long entertained about global co-domination with the Soviets, while on the other hand they pushed NATO to Russia's borders in the Baltic States and interfered massively in Ukraine. Russians came to see America as an enemy. Few Americans understood Vladimir Putin's 1998-99 rise as the reassertion of a bankrupt, humiliated, resentful Great Russian people...
"Then, for what seems to have been the most tactical of domestic political calculations, the Obama administration and therefore the U.S. establishment decided to try explaining the course and results of the 2016 U.S. election campaign as 'Russia's attack on our democracy.'"
One might add when the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign paid for the Russia-Trump Hoax, our relations with Russia, which felt it had been defamed by the Russia Hoax, were made worse.
Unfortunately, Professor de Codevilla passed away in September 2021. So, we don't know what Professor Codevilla would say about Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. But the ever-prescient Professor de Codevilla wrote this: "As always, Ukraine is where Russia’s domestic and foreign policy intersect. With Ukraine (and the Baltic states), Russia is potentially a world power. Without it, much less. Post–Soviet Russia’s horizons have shrunk because the twentieth century’s events forever severed Ukraine’s and the Baltic states’ peoples from Russia." In other words, it is doubtful any Ukrainian babies will be named Vladimir. Not in this century, anyway.
Suggested listening: Dr. Hamilton will be a guest on KOA (850AM and 94.1FM) Radio from 2:00 PM to 3 PM Mountain Time, Monday, March 14, with famed talk show host, Mike Rosen, (who is filling in for Mandy Connell). Bill Hamilton and Mike Rosen will be discussing the war in Ukraine. Also, Hamilton’s recent book on the American experience in Vietnam, War During Peace: A Strategy for Defeat, will be discussed, as well. If you are not in the KOA radio broadcast area, you may be able to listen on your computer or laptop. Just go to this website: https://www.iheart.com/live/koa-389/?sc=inferno&campid=a&pname=KOA-AM
Click on the red play button at the upper left. Takes a few seconds to load.
©2022. William Hamilton.