Let’s take a multiple choice quiz about American foreign policy. Which of the following answers do you think is the actual policy of the Carter Administration?
What should the United States do about the killing of the U.S. Ambassador to Communist Afghanistan? (a) Withdraw recognition and close our embassy. (b) Send in the Marines to assure the safety of other U.S. citizens. (c) Slightly reduce (but not cut out) the U.S. foreign aid to Afghanistan (now $15 million annually).
What should the United States do about the Marxist People’s Fedayeen who invaded the U.S. embassy in Iran, insulted our Ambassador, and are now demanding a Communist government in Iran? (a) Tell the Khomeini government that, if Iran honors its oil contracts with the United States and repays its loans to us, we will help keep the Communists from taking over. (b) Tell Iran that, if it keeps its oil contracts with Israel, South Africa, Japan and Western Europe, those countries will help keep the Communists out of power in Iran. (c) Do nothing and let the Communists grab Iran as they took Afghanistan.
What should the United States do about Red China since Teng duped President Carter into extending recognition just before Teng launched a major invasion of Vietnam? (a) Postpone indefinitely the sending of a U.S. Ambassador to Peking.
(b) Reaffirm our Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan and sell Taiwan late-model defensive weapons. (c) Reward Teng by encouraging U.S. credits and techonology shipments to China.
What should the United States do about the Soviets’ refusal to stop building their advanced strategic bomber, the Backfire? (a) Go into immediate production of the American B-1. (b) Insist that the SALT II Treaty prohibit both U.S. and U.S.S.R. bombers. (c) Continue President Carter’s cancellation of our B-1 while making no protest about the Soviets building their new Backfire bombers.
What should the United States do about the refusal of the Soviet Union to reduce its numbers of super-heavy missiles which have tremendously greater throw-weight and megatonnage than any U.S. weapons? (a) Build U.S. weapons as powerful as the Soviets’. (b) Refuse to sign a SALT II Treaty unless and until the Soviets agree to reduce their missile force to the strength of ours. (c) Pretend that the big difference doesn’t exist, and intimidate the American people into supporting SALT II by the false argument that “the only alternative to SALT II is nuclear incineration.”
As the Bakhtiar government in Iran was collapsing in the face of radical mobs armed with Communist weapons, what should the United States have done about the immense amount of military hardware and secret U.S. defense technology that had been given or sold to Iran (such as the 80 F-14s with their Phoenix missiles and Hughes electronic gear)? (a) Fly all U.S. military secrets out of Iran before it was too late. (b) Restore the morale and authority of the CIA so that the Carter Administration could know what was happening in Iran before they read it in the newspapers. (c) Do nothing and allow U.S. military secrets to be captured by whichever clique comes out on top in Iran.
After the Communist takeovers of the African countries of Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia, what should U.S. policy be? (a) Give moral support and continue to trade with the few remaining pro-Western countries such as the Union of South Africa and Rhodesia. (b) Warn the Soviet Union to stay out of Africa or they can forget about a SALT II Treaty. (c) Pressure Rhodesia to surrender to the murderous invading guerrillas who now brag that they shot down a civilian passenger plane carrying some 35 innocent people.
If you selected answer (c) to all the questions, then you know the folly of the Carter foreign policy. The (c) could stand for “Carter’s choice”, or for Carter’s continuing commitment to seek any agreement with the Soviets or the, Chinese which gives them anything they demand, but gives no benefit whatsoever to the United States.
