GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy — the 38-year-old businessman turned anti-woke political warrior — has enjoyed a surge in media attention after a memo leaked from fellow GOP candidate Ron DeSantis‘s Super PAC urging DeSantis to “take a sledgehammer to Ramaswamy” in the upcoming Republican presidential debate. (The Super PAC’s other controversial directive advises DeSantis to defend Donald Trump, so as not to upset the MAGA faithful.)
Ramaswamy responded archly to the leak, taking a swipe at DeSantis and portraying the Florida Governor as an empty suit: “I think, many times, if you don’t have a message, you look to attack the other candidates.”
But sledgehammer or not, DeSantis isn’t Ramaswamy’s chief concern heading into the debates. The self-styled “anti-globalist” is untested on the international stage — and aggressive Russian and Chinese governments remain positioned to test America, its allies, and the next Oval Office occupant.
Ramaswamy isn’t without a foreign policy role model, however. He says he plans to make like Richard Nixon as commander-in-chief, with his top policy goal as “weakening the alliance between” China and Russia. “What I think we need to be doing, “Ramaswamy says, “is getting Putin to drop Xi Jinping.”
Ramaswamy told CNN’s Jim Acosta: “Just like Nixon went to China in 1972, I think Putin is like the new Mao…I will go to Moscow, and I will pull Russia out of its military alliance with China.”
(Ramaswamy has also suggested the U.S. allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep parts of Ukraine, a step the Biden administration — with Senate support — flatly rejects.)
Ramaswamy asserts that the U.S. involvement in Ukraine is “driving Putin into the arms of China” and it’s a problem, he says, neither Democrats or Republicans are addressing.
[Note: President Biden has said he “doesn’t take lightly” the prospect of a growing alliance between China and Russia but believes the relationship between Russia and China has been “vastly exaggerated.” Biden said in March: “I’ve been hearing now for the past three months about ‘China is going to provide significant weapons to Russia and they’re gonna’ – a lot of talk about that…They haven’t yet. Doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t yet.”]
Ramaswamy — to make manifest his Richard Nixon foreign policy bona fides — gave a speech today at the Richard Nixon Foundation, where he said he would revive the Nixon Doctrine.
[NOTE: Nixon announced the Nixon Doctrine in 1969, during the Vietnam War, whereby the U.S. would “support allies facing military threats with economic and military aid rather than with ground troops.” However, Nixon did not adhere to doctrine when the U.S. sent troops to Cambodia (1970) and Laos (1971).]
Ramaswamy’s Nixonian approach is interesting not least because the Biden administration, in supplying weaponry and tactical support but not troops in Ukraine, already aligns closely with the thrust of the Nixon Doctrine.
My foreign policy focuses on putting America *First.* I will lead America away from neoconservatism and liberal internationalism and toward defense spending that actually *defends* the homeland. No more #UncleSucker. Move to a Modern Monroe Doctrine: guard our hemisphere to stave… pic.twitter.com/a4epLEQphE
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 18, 2023
Sharing the video clip above from the Nixon Library, Ramaswamy wrote: “I will lead America away from neoconservatism and liberal internationalism and toward defense spending that actually *defends* the homeland. No more #UncleSucker.”
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