Give Peace a Chance

Sputnik, Speed Trains & The Outrageous Waste of War

In the upcoming presidential election, the issue of war and peace will be front and center, and there is only one candidate in the two major parties carrying the banner of peace. 

That candidate is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. , who continues the legacy of his own father’s presidential bid, which, as we know, was also firmly grounded in advocacy for peace and for an end to the constant cycle of war that has drained our country of its blood and treasure.  As RFK Jr.’s father saw back then, the laudable goals of the Johnson Administration in trying to build the Great Society — a more equitable and prosperous society for all — were fatally undermined by the long and costly war in Vietnam.  Our economy and society have continued to suffer in the interest of the war machine to the present day.

Indeed, several years ago, President Trump called former President Carter to discuss the rising economy of China — something that clearly unsettled Trump, and that also seems to obsess President Biden and his administration. For his part, Carter was not worried as much about China’s rise as he was about the U.S.’s downward economic and societal trajectory.  

As it turned out, Carter had a simple explanation for both the rise of China and the fall of the United States. His explanation can be summed up in one word — War — and it was the lack of wars in which China has been involved, compared to the policy of almost incessant war chosen by the U.S., that has made all the difference in Carter’s opinion.

While describing Carter’s subtle yet insistent viewpoint in their one-on-one phone call, a Newsweek article relates the following: 

“Since 1979, do you know how many times China has been at war with anybody?" Carter asked. "None. And we have stayed at war."

 The U.S., he noted, has only enjoyed 16 years of peace in its 242-year history, making the country "the most warlike nation in the history of the world," Carter said. This is, he said, because of America's tendency to force other nations to "adopt our American principles." 

In China, meanwhile, the economic benefits of peace were clear to the eye. "How many miles of high-speed railroad do we have in this country?" he asked. While China has some 18,000 miles of high-speed rail, the U.S. has "wasted, I think, $3 trillion" on military spending. "It's more than you can imagine. China has not wasted a single penny on war, and that's why they're ahead of us. In almost every way." 

This sobering account of former President Carter is hard to dispute. Indeed, Carter understated the problem, for, according to a study by the Cost of War Project at Brown University, as of 2021, the US had spent, or was committed to spend, a total of $8 trillion on its wars just since 2001, and these wars had cost the lives of a staggering 4.5 million people.

What we could have done, instead, with those $8 trillion in terms of cleaning up the environment, addressing climate change, alleviating hunger and poverty, caring for those who are ill, providing education, and building infrastructure is almost too painful to contemplate. Had the U.S. government chosen to spend this unimaginable amount of treasure building a foundation for its citizens, and for the world — rather than tearing it down or destroying it in another “war of choice” — we would now have a very different and much better world. But, since 2001, the choice in favor of war has been made more than once and it continues to be made by our current president.  

Indeed, the Biden administration is now fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and threatens almost daily to escalate this war even further. At the same time, it is actively countering and threatening to counter China militarily over the issue of the independence of Taiwan. In other words, the Biden administration appears poised to double down on the fateful decisions of past administrations. 

The military countermoves vis-à-vis China are particularly illuminating as to where we are as a country at present. While the world has long been a witness to China’s spectacular economic and technological development, which threatens to surpass our own, the Biden administration seems to have decided that it cannot compete with this; instead, it seems to have concluded that its only choice may be to undermine China’s development by military means. This is the exact opposite of how the U.S. government reacted in the past to the economic or technological challenges presented by other nations that were major global players. 

The eminent example that immediately comes to mind is that of Sputnik, which was part of the initial Soviet space program and which, quite to the surprise of the United States, also successfully put the first human being into space. President John F. Kennedy reacted to Sputnik, not by threatening to attack the Soviet Union or its space program, but by vowing that the U.S. would use its great technological and human resources to outcompete the Soviet Union.

In September of 1962, President Kennedy famously gave a national address saying that, first, the U.S would increase its spending on science in our schools and universities, thus, increasing the technological knowledge of its people; and, second, that it would put an astronaut on the moon by the end of the decade. Even though President Kennedy tragically did not live to see his promise fulfilled, his imaginative promise was nonetheless realized when three U.S. astronauts, in the Apollo XI spacecraft, landed on the moon in 1969.  

Today, sadly, our government sees China’s assortment of new technological “Sputniks” and has responded by trying to parry China militarily — even though this may provoke a war over the issue of Taiwan — instead of trying to outcompete China as the U.S. successfully did in the 1960s with the Soviet Union. In our view, this is not the American Way that we know and cherish, yet, reassuringly, presidential candidate Kennedy also has the same view as we do, as did his father, RFK, in 1968 in his tragic yet farsighted campaign.

Kennedy understands that, in our American tradition, our best road forward is to accept the new challenge and to come out victorious — not just in the interest of the United States, but in the interest of the world as well. 

Today, this means, as Kennedy has explained, ending the seemingly endless wars in which the U.S. has involved itself, quite often needlessly. This also requires that, as a nation, we hone and use our diplomatic skills to prevent and resolve international conflicts, such as the current one in Ukraine and the one that is now being ginned up with China, ostensibly over Taiwan, even though the earlier version of our “One China” policy had long ensured a peaceful standoff in which Taiwan was able to maintain its de facto independence.

As a nation, it is in our interest to heed the Biblical admonition to be a peacemaker in the world. This is something RFK Jr. understands well from his own lifelong faith as a Roman Catholic and from the influence of his immediate family.

 In 1968, RFK Jr.’s father ran for president on a peace platform, vowing to end the terrible and unpopular war in Vietnam. RFK’s current campaign continues the work of his father in this respect. If it is successful, the dividends for the U.S. and the world will be incalculable for, as RFK Jr. proposes, we will then be in a position to use the trillions saved from not inciting new wars to protect the environment, feed and house the poor, cure disease, address climate change, and build sustainable infrastructure.

If we can stop wars we will also be able to work with other nations to achieve shared goals. This is the only path that we can take if we want to ensure there is a livable world for future generations. And we must take this path now before it is too late. That is why our upcoming election is so critical, and why it is important to vote for someone like Kennedy, who sees so clearly the road to a better world.