My Amazon Review of Yaroslav Trofimov's "Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's....."

Ukraine at War

 

The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov is the best war reporter in the business. Here, in a very personal account, Trofimov covers the first year of Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invaders that began on February 24, 2022.  To Trofimov the war is very personal as he was born and grew up in Kyiv. The places he knew as boy were now targets of Russian bombs and missiles. Indeed, Trofimov was in Kyiv when the shooting started.

 

As a reporter he was present at the major battles of the war starting with Russia’s failed air assault on Hostomel Airport. Had that attack succeeded the war would have been over in weeks. At great personal risk he covered Ukraine’s initial counterattack from the Kyiv front which pushed back the Russian forces. Indeed, while I was following the war from afar, I witnessed on YouTube a perfectly executed ambush of Russian tank forces. I was far away and safe; Trofimov was up close and many times he was at great personal risk.

 

Trofimov takes us to the battles Izyum, Kharkiv and Kherson where once great cities were leveled to the ground by artillery and drone attacks. Much of the success of the Ukrainian army can be attributed to the West supplying Javelin antitank missiles and the HIMARS mobile rocket system. To be sure Ukraine was grateful for the western aid, but in many cases, it was too little too late. Trofimov argues, and I agree, that had the West gone all in from the beginning Ukraine would have won the war in a year. Had the aid come earlier the meatgrinder of Bakhmut would have likely been avoided where Ukrainian forces battled it out with Yevgeny Prigozhin Wagner Group of criminals.

 

Aside from covering the war in the field, Trofimov interviews Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and army chief Valeriy Zaluzhy. And he covers the arrival of the various European heads of state that show up in Kyiv to offer moral support and additional arms,

 

Trofimov is correct in viewing the start of the war in 2014 with Russia’s takeover of Crimea. I argued then that it was a wake-up call for the West. ( See: Shulmaven: The Ukraine: What is to be Done ) Unfortunately, that warning was unheeded and now after much devastation the war enters its third year. Where are the promised F-16 fighter jets? Ukraine still waits.

 

Trofimov gave us his first draft of history with his Wall Street Journal stories. This book represents the second draft and hopefully there will soon be a third draft that ends with a Russian retreat from all Ukrainian territory. 

For the full Amazon URL see: Ukraine at War (amazon.com)

Sleepwalking on the Road to Perdition

 With Trump's 12 point victory over Nikki Haley last night in New Hampshire, it seems that we are getting the 2024 election that most Americans did not want. You can't argue that America is a forward looking country with two octogenarians vying for the presidency. Trump is looking backward to the 1950's where he grew up and to the 1930's antecedents to his America First ideas, while Biden is still stuck in 1970's industrial policy time warp and the extreme cultural liberalism of the1972 McGovern campaign which has been adopted by most of the Democratic Party. 

Meantime the world has become more dangerous by the day with the new axis of evil consisting of China, Russia and Iran threatening U.S. interests around the world. While both candidates will likely focus on domestic issues, it is important to note policy mistakes in the domestic area can be reversed with subsequent elections, foreign policy mistakes are not so easily reversible. This is especially true with the wrecker caucus Republicans holding up much needed aid to Ukraine and Israel. (See: Shulmaven: Crunch Time for Ukraine, Israel and the Border ) If Biden were to show some leadership he should make a deal on the Border with the Republicans and get that issue behind him. If not, my guess is that the Republicans will sweep in November.

Further Biden has to get out of his sleepwalking mode and, if he is capable, he has to run an all-out campaign a la 1948 Harry Truman against the do nothing Congress. However, that "if" is a BFD, as Biden would say. To continue the Truman analogy, Biden should give an all-out speech calling for a big increase in the defense budget to deal with the axis of evil. Otherwise I fear that we would be sleepwalking on the road to perdition.

My Amazon Review of Patrick Weil's "The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt and the Lost Psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson"

 William Bullitt: Diplomat and Amateur Psychiatrist

 

Yale law professor Patrick Weil has really written two books in one. The first deals with the joint effort of William Bullitt and Sigmund Freud to write a psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson. The second is an excellent biography of the extraordinarily well-connected diplomat, William Bullitt.  I found the biography of Bullitt far more interesting.

 

Bullitt hooks up with Sigmund Freud in 1926, first as a patient and later as a collaborator as they seek to understand why Woodrow Wilson failed so badly at the Paris Peace Conference and later in his attempt to ratify the Versailles Treaty though the U.S. Senate. Their explanation is rooted in Wilson’s “daddy issues” (my term) and his Christ Complex.  To me, even with Sigmund Freud at the helm, psychoanalysis at a distance is problematic. Further the title of the book calls Wilson a “madman” when in fact Freud used the term neurosis, not psychosis to describe Wilson’s personality. A simpler explanation would be somewhere along the way Wilson, became a stubborn old man, and systematically began to destroy what he had built.

 

Either way Weil shows the importance of personality in diplomatic affairs. Instead of buying into the older explanation the imperialist machinations of France and England combined with the isolationists in the Senate that worked to kill the treaty, Weil puts the blame directly on Wilson’s personality. Wilson didn’t like the advice he was getting from his two key advisors, Secretary of State Lansing and his longtime confidant, Colonel House, so he fired them. He was too stubborn to make a deal with the Senate Republicans that was already blessed by Britain and France that would have enabled passage through the Senate. Indeed, I learned that as part of the deal was a Treaty of Guarantee that would have established a mutual defense pact between the U.S., Britain and France, a precursor to the Atlantic alliance, if you will.

 

Now, as to Bullitt. At 25, Bullitt, as scion of Philadelphia society, was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. In the middle of the conference, he goes off to Russia to try and make a deal with Lenin, which Wilson rejects. He leaves the conference disillusioned by Wilson’s craven dealmaking. A few years later he marries Louise Bryant, John “10 Days that Shook the World” Reed’s widow. In 1933 he became Roosevelt’s ambassador to Russia and later was his ambassador to Paris where he was his eyes and ears to Nazi Europe. Along the way he helped write speeches for Roosevelt.

 

As ambassador to Russia, he hired George Kenan, Charles “Chip” Bohlen and Loy Henderson, who would become mainstays of U.S. Russia policy during the early Cold War years. In Paris he befriended Charles de Gaulle on the right and Leon Blum on the left. In 1943 he wrote a long memo outlining the threats coming from Russia, that Kenan viewed as precursor to his 1946 Long Telegram. As a result, because of Russia policy difference and Bullitt telling Roosevelt about his friend and Deputy Secretary of State Sumner Wells’ homosexual proclivities, the two break and Bullitt endorses Dewey in 1944.

 

Now on the right with respect to Russia policy, Bullitt gets along great with John Foster Dulles, Chiang-Kai-Shek, and Syngman Rhee of South Korea. Indeed, Bullitt at the request of both Rhee and Dulles mediated a position between them that helped end the Korean War. Further Bullitt came very close with Richard Nixon as congressman and later as vice-president.

 

Weil did a huge amount of work going through all of the Bullitt papers at the Yale library, and his efforts show throughout this book. His work includes uncovering the original Freud-Bullitt manuscript. For a history buff like me, this is a terrific book.

For the full Amazon URL see: William Bullitt: Diplomat and Amateur Psychiatrist (amazon.com)

My Amazon Review of David Brooks' "How to Know a Person"

 The Art of Human Connection

After reading New York Times columnist David Brooks’ book, I got the sense he must have spent thousands of hours in therapy trying to understand himself and his relationships with those close to him. In writing this book Brooks talked to many psychologists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists searching to understand how deep human connections are made. Further he reinforces the science with a host of very human anecdotes.

To Brooks there are two broad types of people. “Diminishers” who are self-centered who don’t disclose much about themselves and don’t really want to know about the people they meet. Their polar opposite is a much smaller group of people who Brooks calls “Illuminators.” Those people are willing to open up their lives to other people and are truly interested in the people they meet. These folks are the story-telling animals that my friend and colleague Ed Leamer writes about. According to Leamer, humans are story-telling animals, but somehow in today’s fast paced society we don’t slow down enough to tell and more importantly to listen. As the old adage goes, you can learn more by listening than speaking.

The goal is to avoid making ourselves invisible to others while at the same time removing the invisibility from them. The sub-head to the book’s title is “The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen” is the message of the book.

Brooks doesn’t talk much of himself until the very end of the book. My sense is that he should have started with his own personal issues in the beginning. To quote Polonius in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “This above all: to thine own self be true.” To me in order to be seen deeply you have see yourself deeply as well.

Brooks has written an important book on how we can get along better with our neighbors, colleagues, and yes, strangers. That in turn will make it easier to heal the divisions in our society.

For the full Amazon URL see: The Art of Human Connection (amazon.com)

Boeing Needs a Culture Transplant

Something is rotten at the storied Boeing Company. Yet again a variant of the 737 Max airplane was grounded after door plug opened up at the start of an Alaska Airlines flight. Further upon inspections several airplanes had loose bolts that hold on the door plug. The FAA immediately grounded 171 737Max9  airplanes. This follows previous groundings in 2021 for electrical problems and the 2019 grounding because of flight control problems that caused two crashes. Boeing CEO David Calhoun called the latest event "a mistake."  It is far deeper than a mistake.

These quality control failures are not random, but rather a symptom of a a finance culture that no longer emphasizes engineering and manufacturing.  Boeing used to pride itself on engineering and manufacturing excellence. That gave way after the 1997 McDonnell Douglas merger when a finance culture was embedded into every corner of the company. That included spinning off the Wichita, Kansas division as Spirit AeroSystems in 2005. It was Spirit who manufactured the fuselage that failed. 

Given this systemic failure, it seems to me, that Boeing needs a culture transplant that begins at the top. The board should ease out the current leadership team and replace the bean counters with aeronautical, manufacturing, and quality assurance engineers. Further the company should amp up its quality control efforts at all of its Tier 1 suppliers. 

To make such a program credible, Boeing should announce that it will suspend share buybacks and dividend increases until an independent panel has judged the culture transplant to be effective

Hamas Airport Protests May Violate 18 U.S. Code 1951

 I am writing this blog as open letter to the Attorney General and several U.S. attorneys.

 To: The Honorable Merrick Garland, Attorney General

       The Honorable Damian Williams, U.S Attorney, Southern District of New York.

       The Honorable Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of New York

       The Honorable Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney, Central District of California

       The Honorable Morris Pasqual, Acting U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Illinois

Gentlemen:

I am sure you are aware of the recent Hamas protests that disrupted airport traffic at JFK, LGA, ORD and LAX over the recent holiday period. I am also aware that you and/or people in your respective offices are aware of 18 U.S. Code 1951 which reads as follows:

   "Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both."

My question to all of you is have you convened a grand jury to indict the ring leaders of the protests for violating 18 U.S. Code 1951. In my opinion, because of the interference in interstate commerce, the airport protests do not deserve the protections of the First Amendment.

Your humble servant,

David Shulman