For today’s class, you had the opportunity to read and/or watch President Donald Trump’s speech before the United Nations in September 2017. Previously, we examined presidential addresses by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, both of whom were speaking in the context of the Cold War. In your view, which aspects of Trump”s rhetoric are consistent with Cold War American ideals? Which are not?
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In reading Trump’s speech to the UN, his comments about the crisis in Venezuela stood out to me. He states, “The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure.” His words echo the United States’ historical criticism to any political ideologies beside democracy. His assertion that Venezuela reflects “faithfully implemented” socialism seems to be untrue, as President Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian regime violently diverges from the ideals of Marxist Socialism. While mirrored in parts of Soviet communism, the food shortages and abuse of power in Venezuela are not related to the “socialist revolution” implemented under the late President Hugo Chavez, whose presidency saw an era of economic prosperity. Trump’s attribution of Venezuela’s failures to a particular ideology is a shallow criticism that echoes much of the anti-Soviet rhetoric of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan’s definition of Soviet unfreedom comes to mind, as he, like Trump, equated economic failure with the impediment of human rights, while, in reality they are markedly separate. In Venezuela, I don’t think human rights infractions came as a result of their socialist economic policies, but were the effect of the actions of a violent authoritarian regime. I disagree with Trump; while socialism was faithfully implemented, it’s shortcomings alone did not cause the crisis. The country’s dependence on oil was the problem, not the establishment of socialism itself.
Other source: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/what-the-hell-is-happening-in-venezuela.html