Only Trump Could Go to Pyong Yang

The question of whether Richard Nixon made a positive impact on the lives of those living under the brutal boot of Chinese communism can be debated without cease. What cannot be debated is the impact of a the singular moment when the then-President of the United States visited China.

From that moment everything after flowed, including a warming relationship, cultural and educational exchanges, etc.

Would we think on the moment in the same way if nothing had come of Nixon's visit, except his ability to say, "I'm the first US President to conduct a State visit to China"?

I don't know, but I suspect the singular moment would still hold its nearly rapturous status in the annals of political science.

The momentousness of Nixon's visit is even preserved in an iconic moment in Star Trek, when Spock quotes an old "Vulcan Proverb," "only Nixon could go to China."

Now there just may be a new bon mot for the poli-sci chattering class: Only Trump could go to North Korea.

What will come of the suddenly announced face-to-face meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un? No one knows. Perhaps a process for denuclearization of North Korea? A winding down of the tensions on the Korean Penninsula, with the possibility of families being reunified? The release of American political prisoners there?

We will have to wait and see. But after nearly a year of regularly pushing the issue of North Korea's pursuit of intercontinental nuclear missiles as a threat to the United States, to Japan, and to other Nations, it appears that President Trump successfully deployed what liberals undoubtedly considered a crazy strategy, but which this week's announcement proves a "crazy like a fox" strategy!