As President Donald Trump struggles to fulfill his campaign promise to bring an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, he and his team should review what another American president did facing a similar challenge seven decades ago. In his 1952 campaign for the White House, Dwight David Eisenhower pledged to end a bloody war that had claimed more than 3 million lives on the Korean Peninsula. Over the next six months, he actually did it. […]
So, while the negotiations dragged on, so too did intense fighting for another year and into election season in the United States. While the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson essentially supported Truman’s position on Korea, Eisenhower made this a major issue in the campaign. He pledged to use his authority and skills as a military commander to quickly end the war.
To make this happen, as soon as the election was over, Ike “went to Korea” to talk directly and candidly with South Korean leader Rhee and his military commanders. When Rhee presented to Eisenhower his plans for a new offensive to seize the North and reunify the country, Ike simply said: “no.” In March 1953, when Stalin died, Eisenhower recognized that this would mean declining Soviet support for the war. This presented a window of opportunity for an armistice that Rhee might not like but that Eisenhower believed would be good enough for the United States. In the negotiations that followed, that meant repeatedly overruling his ally—including threatening to cut off fuel from the South Korean army when Rhee threatened to fight on after the United States signed an armistice. In the final stage of negotiations, Rhee attempted to upend the talks by orchestrating a prison break of over 25,000 POWs held by U.N. forces. In response, Eisenhower warned him that “your present course of action will make it impractical for the UN Command to continue to operate jointly with you”—a threat to leave him on his own, unless he fell in line. […]
The key to Eisenhower’s success in fulfilling his promise will also be essential for Trump. Ike took the lead himself in a direct, focused effort to close the deal. If Trump can channel Eisenhower, using his authority to hammer out an agreement that neither Zelenskyy nor Putin will like but that will end the killing, prevent another outbreak of war, and allow Ukrainians to start rebuilding their country, he will be able to claim that he has achieved the peace “deal of the century.” Läs artikel