Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award
Reposted from JohnEdwards.com
http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/8/24/02839/2147#5
John Edwards and Robert Kennedy
edwardsiniowa in Arguments & Analyses
8/24/2007 at 12:05 PM EST
There is no doubt that Robert Kennedy's last campaign was a special one. As Jules Witcover examined in great detail in his famous book about the campaign, "85 Days," Bobby Kennedy struck an emotional chord in both voters and political leaders and shook the foundations of the Democratic Party. This is not 1967, but 2007--and Senator John Edwards will be first to tell you that he is not Bobby Kennedy. However, there are similarities between 2007 and the tumultuous period of 1967-1968, and there are also similarities between the campaigns of JRE and RFK. In both the 1960's and today, there was a controversial war waging in a foreign land that was costing American blood. Robert Kennedy initially supported the war in Vietnam as a Senator and was considered by many to be a foreign policy "hawk." But with age and experience came greater wisdom, and in 1968, Robert Kennedy felt so strongly against the war in Vietnam he ran against a sitting President of his own party on a platform of social and economic justice, and on ending the war in Vietnam.
Similarly, John Edwards initially supported the war in Iraq when he voted for a resolution in 2002 that gave President Bush the authority to go to war. But today, John Edwards is one of the most outspoken critics of the war in Iraq and has positioned himself as the candidate who will fight for social justice. Edwards has also recently traced the steps of Bobby Kennedy on the campaign trail, visiting places other candidates have long forgotten.
There are startling parallels between our situation in Vietnam in 1968 and Iraq today. As Robert Kennedy stated in his Presidential stump speeches on numerous occasions, the war in Vietnam created a "deep crisis of confidence in our leadership, in each other, and in our very self as a nation." No one can doubt from the continuously sagging approval numbers of both Congress and the President today, that the war in Iraq and Congresses failure to stop it has also similarly destroyed the credibility of our leaders in the eyes of many here in America, and in the world abroad.
President Johnson and President Bush also mirror each other when it comes to their denial about the realities of their respective wars. In 1967, Johnson even had his own "troop surge" and repeatedly promised the American people that "victory was around the corner." Today, President Bush continues to tell the public that the United States is "making progress in Iraq." But Johnson's slogan during Vietnam was just as phony as Bush's "Mission Accomplished/We are making progress" slogans of today. Victory was not around the corner then, just like today, because of fundamentally unsound policies and because of the unwillingness by the nation's leaders to change course when the need for a change of course was obvious.
Bobby Kennedy understood in 1968 that America had serious threats facing it. After all, he played a key role during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a crisis that brought the United States to the brink of nuclear war. Similarly, John Edwards also knows that military action is sometimes necessary. John supports hunting down and capturing Bin Laden and other terrorist leaders who threaten America. But Bobby Kennedy and John Edwards both realize that successful wars cannot be fought unilaterally and that wars and military conflicts sometimes require a change in course when the policy was plainly backfiring. As Kennedy put in a speech in 1968:
"I do not want -- as I believe most Americans do not want -- to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned -- as I believe most Americans are concerned -- that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong. I am concerned -- as I believe most Americans are concerned -- that we are acting as if no other nations existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike. I am concerned -- as I believe most Americans are concerned -- that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United States or the cause of peace in the world."
In 1968, we also had a Congress that refused to stop the war in Vietnam which is similar to our Congress today. In Vietnam, at every crisis, our solution was simply to send more troops. Every time more troops were sent, we were assured that this would lead to victory. But all the escalations in the 1960's led us no closer to victory in Vietnam.
Today, President Bush tells us that his troop "surge" in Iraq will lead us closer to victory. However, the lessons of Vietnam teach us otherwise. Our surges in Vietnam created a situation that caused the country to be less and less capable of organizing and defending itself, and forced the United States to take on more and more of the burden of fighting the entire war. We are seeing a similar situation in Iraq as our troops take on more and more of the burden of security; the Iraq government is losing its political courage to take on more responsibilities. Troop surging in Vietnam and today, is a policy that allows the absence of a political solution and enables newly formed government to continue the status quo --instead of taking on more of the burdens of war.
Kennedy realized in 1968, that America had two threats. A threat from a real and dangerous enemy, but also, a threat from our own leaders who ignored or buried the truth, leaders who would not change course when a change of course was needed, but instead, continued to engage in promoting misguided policies that increased the threats to America.
Unfortunately, we are in the similar situation all over again. As John Edwards has mentioned in numerous debates, we have a President who is ignoring the realities of his harmful policies all over the world and in Iraq and we have a Congress that is ignoring its Constitutional authority to exercise its powers to stop the war. As John Edwards stated in a press release earlier this year, "This is déjà vu all over again. We saw it in Vietnam and we saw it earlier this year. We don't need any more non-binding resolutions or big statements; we need to end the war." John knows as I know that the Congress didn't act soon enough to end the Vietnam War. It wasn't until 1971 that Congress finally repealed the resolutions authorizing the Vietnam War, and the war continued for years more until Congress stopped funding it.
Kennedy stated on many occasions that the 1968 campaign was a contest "not for the rule of America, but for the heart of America." It was an election that would decide what the country ultimately stood for. It was an election that would determine whether we truly wanted a change of direction which would restore our place at the point of moral leadership in the world.
Today, we have a situation politically that is very much similar to 1967-68. We have a President that ignores the truth and a Congress that is too afraid to defund the war in Iraq. But in 1968, as Witcover wrote in his book "85 Days," "our nation found a man who in his own moment in history moved people, was moved by them, to a condition of hope in a time of national disillusionment." I believe that in these troubling times which seem to closely mirror the election of 1968, our nation will once again find hope, and in my view, that hope is John Edwards.
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