These are the responses to Trump’s DC military parade
SUMMARY
President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to prepare a grand military parade in Washington, DC, and the initial response has been largely negative.
Democratic lawmakers quickly came out against it Feb. 6, with Rep. Jackie Speier of California telling CNN, "we have a Napoleon in the making here" and saying, "everyone should be offended" by the idea.
"Oh my god... he wants to be Kim Jong Un," the MSNBC personality Joy Reid remarked on Twitter in response to the news.
The Pentagon is said to be exploring dates for such a parade. But if it does happen, Trump wouldn't be the first U.S. president, or even the first modern one, to hold a military parade in Washington, DC.
There's a long history of military parades in the U.S., but its recent history is anchored in the Cold War when the U.S. showed off nuclear missiles long before North Korea's Kim dynasty even had the capability.
Recent history of U.S. military parades — and their nukes
In 1953 and 1957, Dwight Eisenhower's inaugurations included nuclear-capable missiles rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy's inaugural parade included four types of nuclear missiles, the nuclear historian Stephen Schwartz pointed out on Twitter.
Both Kennedy and Eisenhower presided over some of the tensest days of the Cold War-era nuclear-arms race with the Soviet Union.
In Kennedy's case, a frightened U.S. had just watched the Soviets' Sputnik satellite, mankind's first, passing through the skies. American schoolchildren were drilled on how to hide under desks in the event of a nuclear attack. After all, if the Soviets could put a satellite in space and fly it around the world, they could also put up the bomb.
On the other end of the Cold War, when the U.S. emerged victorious from the Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush brought back the military for another parade.
The U.S. victory had been decisive, with Saddam Hussein's army, the world's third-largest at the time, decimated by superior U.S. military power. Though 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. casualties were forecast in the conflict, where chemical weapons had killed scores of civilians, fewer than 300 U.S. troops died.
Also Read: North Korea wants to scare the US with a huge military parade
The U.S. brought its troops home for a parade in June 1991, when Bush's approval rating was soaring.
Later that year, the Kremlin lowered the Communist hammer-and-sickle flag for the last time. The Soviet Union imploded, and the Cold War ended.
The Cold War is back on, parades and all
Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has withdrawn troops from Europe and taken measures to reduce its military footprint and nuclear stockpiles. The Obama administration increasingly treated Russia like a partner and less like a competitor.
But late in Obama's presidency, the tide started to turn. Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 to a muted U.S. and NATO response.
Russia intervened in Syria's civil war the next year and immediately started bombing U.S.-backed forces. Additionally, Russia stands accused of violating arms-control agreements with the U.S. and placing nuclear weapons in Europe, much as it did in the Cold War.
China, over the same period, embarked on a massive, ambitious campaign to rebuild its military and dominate the South China Sea, a shipping lane where annual commerce worth trillions of dollars passes through, and where China has ignored international law in building artificial islands in contested territory.
The return to Cold War footing for Eastern powers isn't Trump's doing and didn't happen on his watch, but the U.S.'s embrace of a new Cold War definitely is.
Trump takes aim at China and Russia, looking to fight fire with fire
The Trump administration recently released a series of documents outlining the U.S.'s foreign policy and military bearings. In the National Defense Strategy, the National Security Strategy, and the Nuclear Posture Review, the Trump administration has consistently named its biggest challenges as taming the rises of Russia and China.
Trump's new nuclear posture looks past arms control and toward an arms race.
Russia regularly holds military parades. So does North Korea. So do many U.S. allies, including many democracies.
Trump's military parade may be costly, and it may tax an already stretched military, but in context, it marks a return to Cold War-era great-power competition.
