The President and the Bomb

I had better begin by giving fair warning. I don’t really believe Jimmy Carter is the worst President we’ve ever had. I’ll admit he’s not exactly my dream prince, but it’s reasonable to rate a President by comparison with his peers, not with the Wizard of Oz. So judged, Jimmy Carter has some formidable rivals for low spot on the list. I won’t drag in Millard Fillmore, Rutherford Hayes, or Chester A. Arthur, but even sticking closer to our own day, Carter at least hasn’t chickened out on an invasion launched by his order, thrown away to no purpose 50,000 American and a couple of million other lives by incompetent handling of a minor war, renounced a second term on the demand of rampaging students, drug-soaked hippies, and spoiled children playing revolution, brought a bungled war to an end in an ignominious defeat christened “peace with honor,” or got caught in a tangle of lies and a cheap coverup that got him booted out in disgrace while it demoralized the citizenry.

It is not my purpose, here and now, to render a general verdict on the Jimmy Carter Administration (which, come to think of it, has some while yet to run before the evidence is in). However, I am ready to defend its most widely and harshly criticized action to date: the decision not to decide about production of the neutron bomb.

JB

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James Burnham

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I had better begin by giving fair warning. I don’t really believe Jimmy Carter is the worst President we’ve ever had. I’ll admit he’s not exactly my dream prince, but it’s reasonable to rate a President by comparison with his peers, not with the Wizard of Oz. So judged, Jimmy Carter has some formidable rivals for low spot on the list. I won’t drag in Millard Fillmore, Rutherford Hayes, or Chester A. Arthur, but even sticking closer to our own day, Carter at least hasn’t chickened out on an invasion launched by his order, thrown away to no purpose 50,000 American and a couple of million other lives by incompetent handling of a minor war, renounced a second term on the demand of rampaging students, drug-soaked hippies, and spoiled children playing revolution, brought a bungled war to an end in an ignominious defeat christened “peace with honor,” or got caught in a tangle of lies and a cheap coverup that got him booted out in disgrace while it demoralized the citizenry.

It is not my purpose, here and now, to render a general verdict on the Jimmy Carter Administration (which, come to think of it, has some while yet to run before the evidence is in). However, I am ready to defend its most widely and harshly criticized action to date: the decision not to decide about production of the neutron bomb.