Steven Simon served as the National Security Council senior director for counterterrorism and for the Middle East and North Africa, respectively, in the Clinton and Obama administrations. His next book,, will be published by Penguin Random House.The burgeoning crisis in the Persian Gulf has drawn comparisons to the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964.
Kuwait, the main outlet for Iraqi oil, was eager to outsource protection of its oil carriers. Its leaders approached the Soviets, confident that this would spook a hesitant Reagan administration into offering American protection. It worked: The United States agreed to reflag Kuwaiti and other vessels as U.S. ships, so that the U.S. Navy could legally offer its protection by escorting the ships through the Persian Gulf and into open ocean, beginning in July 1987.
In retrospect, the curious thing about the incident was the Reagan administration’s restraint. President Ronald Reagan tended to use tough rhetoric about American adversaries, and Iran was no exception, especially after his secret attempt to woo the Iranians through arm sales had collapsed in fall 1986. But even though Iran had put a U.S. warship out of commission, the Reagan’s administration’s response was modest and proportional; there were no strikes against targets on Iranian soil.
The parallels between today’s situation and the 1980s are clear. Yet there is reason to wonder how closely the Trump administration will follow Reagan’s precedent. We now have another president who talks tough and valorizes military power but is reluctant to use force. His advisers, however—unlike Weinberger and George Shultz, Reagan’s secretary of state—are risk takers who court escalation.
So now you support Reagan.
Restraint? Good luck with that! Good luck to us all.
This loopy faker is not Reagan. How will this miracle happen? He wants the military hat & jacket on the carrier deck..he's got big dreams..we are doomed & we know it.
Iran is not our enemy. They are an impediment to Saudi Arabia controlling the entire region.
restraint? they negotiated to keep the crisis going they sold them military weapons it wasnt restraint reagan was a disgrace
The DerangedDesperateDonald is too stupid and arrogant to learn from anyone!
Orange man is not capable of learning.
Trump does not learn. We are so screwed.
When 50 percent of Americans think your campaign coordinated with Russia, 50 percent want you impeached and 49 percent want Biden vs 39 percent for you according to Fox News Polls 6/16/2019, it's hard to decide between provoking war with Iran or deporting millions of immigrants.
do you mean colluding with the kidnappers to throw the election or illegally selling arms to them to finance a coup in el salvador?
First of all President Trump is not like any other president that I have seen he's better Politico is not worth much of news they're more like that child in the corner crying all the time because they didn't get their way.
Restraint and trump in the same sentence? That’s funny.
'Learn'? Trump? Please
Don't even think to touch Iran HassanRouhani
The only thing that the realDonaldTrump regime has recycled from RonaldReagan is ...
He doesn't pay attention to history or prior president action as he is impulsive person.🇺🇸
'Trump can learn...' Are you kidding? Don't use lead ins like that. Offer opinions all you want but don't use that as a headline or whatever. One of our biggest problems is that Trump doesn't learn. Doesn't see any reason why he should listen to anyone but himself.
Trump - learn from the past? Yeah, get back to me on that one.
They are trying to start a war not avoid one.
So he’ll ignore it.
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