BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

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One of the truly most heartfelt and memorable things I was able to do as an elected official and candidate for Congress was speak at this event honoring those who had lost their lives in Military Service in 2012. 

This speech was very special to me because it involves three people I admired tremendously. I was able to talk about my political hero Bob Dole, My Great Uncle J.B. Crowley (two heroic World War 2 veterans) and I shared the stage that day with my friend and the Mayor I served with on the Myrtle Beach City Council for 12 years, John Rhodes. 

I hope the speech touches the moment and puts this most important holiday in its proper perspective. 

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In December of 2019, our Host Randal Wallace published his first  book, "Always Vote Your Conscience, don't take it personally and don't fight the same old battles over and over again". Just as he was going out to do book promotions the Covid- 19 Pandemic hit the United States and everything was cancelled.

It was then that he put together and started this podcast "Bridging the Political Gap" on Buzzsprout .  As the pandemic is beginning to fade into history we thought we would re-share several of the interviews from Mr. Wallace's book promotions which give a bit of a prelude to the Podcast we are now doing. 

Included in this episode is also a small portion of an interview on "Carolina This Week with Tim McGuinness " that was from Mr. Wallace's campaign for the 7th Congressional District,  the original basis for the policies in the book and podcast. Followed by his interview with "Carolina This Week with Trey Paul" , a segment from "Talking Politics with John Bonsignor" , and "Rivertalk with Jack Murphy and Deacon Dawson." 

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There is a price that must often be paid for leadership. If you want to be a leader you must be willing to pay it. I question whether many of our leaders today seem to realize this simple fact. There comes a time when you must put the country first. 

For all of their flaws, no one can question whether General Douglas MacArthur or President Harry Truman were willing to pay that price, both in their own way did. One sacrificed his military career and the other his popularity and eventually stepped aside as President of the United States because of the decisions they made to do what they thought was right. 

A lesson our leadership needs to learn as they address our issues today. 

Here, in the final episode of our 3 part series examining the firing of General Macarthur,  we look at the consequences of their decisions. As Harry Truman announces he will not seek the re-nomination of his party for another term as President and , finally, we look at General Douglas MacArthur as he takes the national stage for a final time and delivers one of the most heralded and most remembered speeches in all of American History to a joint Session of Congress on April 19, 1951

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The People's Volunteer Army descends on North Korea and pushes the United Nation's forces back to below the 38th Parallel. All of General Macarthur's reassurances vanish and Truman is stuck with tough decisions. Does he take the war to the Chinese or contain it on the Korean Peninsula? His Field General wants to bomb Manchuria and do battle with the Chinese. Truman says No.

What will ensue is a battle of wills over the direction of American War Policy on the ground between a President and one of the most celebrated military minds our country had produced in the 20th century. 

When it was all said and done MacArthur would lose that test of wills, but be heralded as a hero here at home. While Truman would win the battle over policy and later, perhaps, the judgement of history. In the short term, it was a public relations disaster. 

Either way both men show what real leadership entails, the willingness to make tough, unpopular decisions for the greater good even when the consequences are tough or career ending for you in the short term. A lesson leadership today needs to learn. 

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From 1950 to 1953 America went to war in what has often been called "The Forgotten War" in Korea. It was one of the first real tests of the Cold War between the United States and the Communist World and it happened due to an oversight. When Secretary of State Dean Acheson forgot to include the Korean Peninsula in his a speech about American Policy in Asia, and who we would and would not protect in the region. It led to an enormous miscalculation from Kin IIl Sung and the powers that be in the Communist World.  They tried to take over South Korea.  

They waged an aggressive campaign that pushed the United Nations troops back to a small corner of South Korea to the port of Pusan. It was then that General Douglas MacArthur came up with a strategy that is arguably the boldest move ever in the history of Warfare. He "hit' em where they ain't" an ran an amphibious assault on the Port of Inchon 150 miles behind enemy lines and then routed them back to the Yalu River on the Chinese border. 

In this first episode we look at all his success before the Chinese entered the war and set the stage for the clash with President Truman about who really is in charge of foreign policy during war time, the General in the field or the President of the United States. 

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In a year so dramatic no fiction writer would dare write it

Franklin Roosevelt Dies
Benito Mussolini is captured , executed, and hung in a public square, upside down
Adolf Hitler Commits Suicide
Winston Churchill is defeated for re-election
Harry Truman drops an Atomic Bomb 
and finally Douglas Macarthur presides over the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay. 

1945 was a year for the history books. Re-live those events and listen as Bob Dole , Daniel Inouye and Strom Thurmond give you insights on the soldiers stories of that incredible conflict too and President Harry Truman talks to historians about his perspective as well. 

 In the exciting  conclusion of our 4 part look at World War 2,  the event that shaped an entire generation of American Leadership.  

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Strom Thurmond landed on a glider behind enemy lines at D-Day and then went with the 82nd Airborne Division and then the First Army Division all the way to nearly Berlin. Listen as he talks about that campaign from D-Day through Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge and across the Rhine River as we also mix in Newsreel coverage from the time. It is the closing days of 1944 and the Allies are on the march through out Europe. 

Then listen as Franklin Roosevelt addresses the nation about the Allied intentions as it closes in on Germany, then again as he is Inaugurated for an unprecedented fourth term and finally as he addresses Congress after his return from the big three Yalta Conference in a speech that he begins with the only acknowledgement in his entire career of his handicap in public.  

Finally, we close the episode with a look back at the life and career of the extraordinary man who led America through a Great Depression and a World War. 

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We start this episode at the low point in the fighting for the Allies, just after Pearl Harbor. Here you see the mighty resolve cement in place as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill rally their two nations to come back from near disaster. 

Then we fast forward 40 years to the anniversary of the Normandy Invasion and hear the inspiring words of another U.S. President, Ronald Reagan,  as he  spoke at two separate events that day and left an amazing tribute to the men who bore the weight of that faithful day 40 years before. 

These speeches are considered among Reagan's best.  Join us as we relive those fate filled days again. 

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World War 2 was the  central event of the 20th Century, it shaped the life of all who lived through it and created a generation of leaders who made America into the country it is today. Over the next four episodes we will relive the moments, speeches, and events through newsreels, full speeches, and commentary. 

We have focused our show on the lessons we can learn from this generation of leaders, for the next four episodes we will focus on the single event that shaped them into the bipartisan, unified leaders that they became when they came home from the war and made our country a more just one, and changed the world for the better. 

This episode centers on one event, the most shocking one for an entire generation, the bombing of  Pearl Harbor on December 07, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. 

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The Life , Career, and Leadership of Robert Byrd, the longest serving legislator in all of American history. He could give a speech on Dog fighting and quote Aristotle. He worked together with Bob Dole on enormously important pieces of legislation through out the 1980's and while they were often adversaries on issues they were obviously friends and they set the example we should all follow on how to work together for the good of all. 

Robert Byrd was the historian of the Senate, he believed that an institution should always exist where one man could stand and question the executive and Federal policy of the nation until he dropped or asked to speak while sitting down. He believed in America and the Constitution as the document that protected our freedom. An old school democrat, an an old school politician that never forgot where he came from nor who he represented. 

And finally a look at Senator Frank Lautenberg, the last World War 2 veteran to serve in the U.S Senate, with his passing ended an era of bipartisan work by the men who built the American Century. Lautenberg was a man of enormous accomplishment, a self made millionaire, who as a Senator raised the legal drinking age to 21 , ended smoking on airplanes, and was a proponent of mass transit and environmental protection.  

This is part 3 of our look at six of the greatest Senators of the Greatest Generation. 

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