Richard Cohen: a monument to historical ignorance

Richard Cohen’s spoor, How the GOP Could Win, appearing in today’s Post:

The history I have in mind is 1972. By the end of that year, 56,844 Americans had been killed in Vietnam, a war that almost no one thought could still be won and that no one could quite figure out how to end. Nevertheless, the winner in that year’s presidential election was Richard M. Nixon. He won 49 of 50 states — and the war, of course, went on. Just as it is hard to understand how the British ousted Winston Churchill after he had led them to victory in Europe in World War II, so it may be hard now to appreciate how Nixon won such a landslide while presiding over such a dismal war. In the first place, he was the incumbent, with all its advantages and with enormous amounts of money at his disposal. In the second place, back then the Vietnam War was not as unpopular as you might think — or, for that matter, as the Iraq war is now. In 1972, almost 60 percent of Americans approved of the way Nixon was handling the war.

Before the 1972 election, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger disclosed that secret negotiations had been taking place between the United States and North Vietnam, and declared in a press conference that “Peace is at hand.” Nixon’s handling of the war met with higher approval in large part because he vowed to end the war, not perpetuate it indefinitely, and reduced US troop levels. Moreover, the Republicans inherited the war from a Democratic administration which had initiated and tragically escalated.

Now we come to the current race. The war in Iraq is not — or not yet — an issue for Republicans.

That’s because they’re not trying to explain their support of the war to the American people, who as a whole despise the war, but rather the ever narrowing segment of those who identify with the Republican Party.

Nixon running for reelection after announcing a Vietnam ceasefire and ending a war started by his opposition party is a far different kettle of fish than a Giuliani or a Romney running on a platform of indefinitely continuing a disastrous war started by their own party until a victory which they can no longer define is accomplished.

Even a twit like Cohen ought to be able to see that.