A Wise Foreign Policy

“We must always be on guard against the rise of a Hitler; but must avoid hysterical fears of democratically elected leaders we simply don’t like.  We never quite seem to realize that our blatant opposition to a popular choice only strengthens the support for those foreign leaders we try to bully out of their presidential palaces.  We need to be more calculating and less childishly spiteful: Stalin no, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela a provisional yes (in time Chavez will overreach and fail).  Let immature electorates live and learn–don’t try to stop the projector in the middle of their movie.  Don’t behave so stupidly–as we did with Castro, Mossadegh, and others–that we become the excuse for another country’s failures.” — Ralph Peters, New Glory, p. 140.