Flash Points USA - America at War - James Thorber
Flash Points USA - America at War - James Thorber
Flash Points USA - America at War - James Thorber (raw material of interview with James Thorber, answers questions related to various Presidents) 03.02.15 James Thorber responds to Teddy Roosevelt quote "You can't be a great President without a war", Thorber says "I think many Presidents think that if they solve a crisis in foreign policy or they go to war they certainly are going to go down in history as a great President, but that is not always the case. Americans like President's to solve crisis, but when they don't, when they screw up in war they are at the bottom of the list in terms of prestige." 03.02.44 Thorber says FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) obviously succeeded in WWII, Abraham Lincoln took great risks in the Civil War, says "He kept the nation together". Says Wilson wasn't so successful after WWI, Johnson didn't run for re-election because of Vietnam, says "the American public didn't agree on what the threat was, let alone what the mission was in Vietnam, and that hurts a President." Teddy Roosevelt is known as the great "charging" leader in war, John F. Kennedy helped to create the "Bay of Pigs" failure, but came back and solved the Cuban Missile crisis, says Kennedy is a very prominent President known for "keeping us out of war." 03.04.20 Thorber says that Kennedy got us into Vietnam, and Johnson felt that we couldn't withdraw from Vietnam that it would be a question of our prestige, he continues "it was a failure and it was a mark for an entire generation that effects us today with respect to the use of power through warfare and I think that people are a little more cautious these days as a result of that." 03.05.07 James Thorber speaking about Abraham Lincoln "As we look back at Lincoln, he's this very prominent President that kept the nation together, kept the Republic together but he was not well liked, he was criticized in the press. If we had poles which we did not then, he would be in the 20 % percentile probably in terms of job performance and agreement with his policy of going to war against the South, the Confederacy." 03.05.44 James Thorber states "I think most President's feel that they have truth when they go to war, they feel they're doing the right thing, after they've discussed it with their advisors and sometimes with Congress, many times not with Congress which is a problem, and many times it's not popular. The ones that win those wars or confrontations or keep us out of crisis or solve crisis are the ones who go down in history as great Presidents, the ones who lose are the ones that go down in history as not being great Presidents. All wars are controversial, all wars are tragedies for families that lose their daughters and sons and no one wants to see slaughter and so Presidents usually take this to their heart and it's a very hard decision." 03.06.47 Continues to say "The point is many times when people get into war at the very beginning there is a rally effect around the President and there's great support. In fact if you look at George W. Bush, there was great support for the war in Iraq 75% of the American people felt he was doing the right thing, he has dropped in the poles to most recently in the 40% percentile. There was great support at the beginning of Vietnam, although there wasn't great understanding of the war by Americans and then of course it became quite unpopular. That happens in war, many people didn't want Lincoln to go to war in the beginning and then when he won in history he became very prominent. And of course America generally for years didn't want to enter WWII after the terrible experience of WWI and FDR had to bring people along slowly, had to do things secretly to support the Brits (British) in terms of construction of ships and other weapons and it wasn't very popular until Pearl Harbor occurred, when that occurred we had rally effect and there was great support." 03.08.13 Mr. James Thorber says "This is the most important power of a President and they have to take it very seriously, and the ones who take it seriously and think about the alternatives to war, to prevent war, to think about the variety of things with war and what happens after war are the ones that are the best Presidents. The ones who have rushed into combat, the ones who have not taken a long time to weight the alternatives to combat are the ones who run into trouble."