"Strong Leader"

In 1953 generals and diplomats left a room with a deal in hand. It wouldn't end the war, but would end the shooting.  Both sides agreed that neither would cross the 38th parallel.  We had agreed to a cease fire effectively ending action in the Korean war. The North Koreans with the aid of the Chinese and war materials from the Soviet Union were responsible for the deaths of 33,686 Americans. That number doesn't include South Korean, Greek, British or Australian soldiers who died in that conflict.
          
        In 1975 a helicopter leaves the rooftop of the U.S. embassy in Saigon. South Korean Marines and the Australian army had left two years earlier along with most of the U.S.army The North Vietnamese with aid from the Soviet Union  had killed 47,424 American servicemen and women in some of the ugliest fighting this country had ever seen. The casualties we suffered in those wars were a result of the cold war which we fought against the Soviet Union. Generations of Americans lived in fear of Russian nuclear strikes and the late President Ronald Reagan went so far as to call the Soviets an "Evil Empire" bent on imposing it's will upon the world.
    
      In the year 2000 the Russian people in an election many poll watchers thought to be rigged elected former head of the KGB Vladamir Putin their President.  He had seen the Soviet union dissolve and made no secret of the fact that he wished to see every satellite which had gained independence returned to mother Russia.
      In response to dissent in the Ukraine his assassins poisoned Ukrainian president Vicktor Yushenko and later were responsible for the non fatal poisoning of Ukrainian presidential candidate Alexander Litvinenko. In 2014 Russia invaded Ukraine and assumed that because they weren't in uniform, that the world would believe that it was merely an uprising by the Ukrainians themselves who wished to be part of Russia again.
       Putin has spent the last 16 years hacking American government computers and spying on the governments of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, but Donald Trump when running for president called this vile thug and assassin a "strong leader."
         Russia makes no secret about the fact that they desire to rebuild their empire and our newest president elect wants to not only abandon our allies in the North Atlantic Treaty organization, but also wants to "Normalize" relations with Russia. I harbor no animosity towards the Russian people. I know and have known Russians and regard them as a fine people. My issue is NOT with the Russian people, but with the  dictator who currently runs their country. Becoming chummy with a nation whom Reagan called the "Evil Empire" will be to our detriment.