73 years ago today, barely three months into his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower delivered one of the most critical speeches in American statecraft.

An olive branch from the man who crushed the Wehrmacht, it was also a psychological weapon against global communism, designed to end America’s first “forever war” in Korea.

A thread on why Ike’s “Chance for Peace" speech matters more than ever. 🧵 Returning from his historic (possibly illegal) trip to the Korean peninsula as president-elect, the fulfillment of the most iconic campaign pledge of all time, “I shall go," Ike knew “Small attacks on small hills would not end this war.”

Fate threw Eisenhower an opportunity when Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953.

He immediately recognized this opportunity and seized it, against the advice of his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, and delivered his “Chance for Peace Speech” just over a month later on April 16, 1953.

Rep. Gallagher: "We must not gamble the fate of the Free World on Xi’s restraint nor on our own utopian delusions that we’ve evolved beyond wars of territorial expansion. What we can do, however, is build an anti-navy." Rep. Gallagher: "The first step in building this anti-navy does not require us to defy any laws of physics, though technically it is rocket science."

THREAD ➡️ President Biden has just issued an unprecedented number of foolish and economically destructive executive orders. So much for unity. You might be wondering how he is allowed to do this. After all, America isn't a dictatorship and the president doesn't make laws. Put simply: Congress. Every president issues guidance to the executive branch. That's normal. But when Congress passes bad, vague, or imprecise laws, it opens up space that executive orders fill. In other words, Congress enables presidential discretion.

THREAD ➡️ 76 years ago today, tens of thousands of Americans, along with our allies, displayed unparalleled courage on the beaches and causeways of Normandy, beginning the long process of liberating Europe from Nazi rule. The extraordinary sacrifices made on that day of days did not come out of thin air. In the 1930s, deterrence failed, our adversaries saw a free world unwilling to impose costs on aggression, and democracies were late to mobilize against the Nazi war machine.

I’m looking forward to hearing from @EsperDoD today, because what we’ve been told so far doesn’t make a lot of sense. Erdogan has been threatening to invade Syria for years now and I’m not sure why we acquiesced after he allegedly gave 48-hours notice. In other words, the presence of American service members has successfully helped deter the Turks from taking this kind of action in the past. It’s unclear why this would have suddenly changed, and it suggests that ultimately, Erdogan was bluffing.

THREAD ➡️ With major NATO meetings this week, allied defense leaders must heed this warning about threats from Chinese-developed 5G networks. washingtonpost.com/world/national… So far, mainstream concerns with firms like Huawei have focused on espionage concerns. Given high-profile examples like the African Union headquarters, this focus is understandable. But as the letter describes, espionage is only one of three broad concerns with PRC-supplied 5G.

We all want to see the North Korean crisis resolved diplomatically and the administration deserves enormous credit for the maximum pressure campaign. In the last 16 months alone, @POTUS has designated more North Korean entities for sanctions than in the previous 8 years. But unless the subsequent Pompeo-led negotiations compel the Kim regime to make new & concrete concessions, count me a skeptic when it comes to whether yesterday’s agreement advanced the ball down the field toward CVID in any meaningful way.