With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Michael Ledeen: The Betrayal of Chen is America's Dishonor

Michael Ledeen holds a Ph.D. in modern European history and philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, and has taught at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Rome.

I wonder what the Atrocities Board would say about the dreadful betrayal of freedom in China.  Only kidding.  This Orwellian institution is surely designed to deal only with old horrors;  you know, those during the dark ages of Bushitlercheney. Or even in the days of Obama’s bête blanche, Bill Clinton, about whom the flagrantly hypocritical Samantha Power raged so piously righteous some years back for his failure to save Africans from slaughter.  Now that she sits in the White House, she joins the other organizers and activists who abandon those who share our national commitment to freedom, and embrace those tyrants who are crushing it as best they can.

To this grim gallery of rogues we can properly add Hillary, whose relationship with the president will some day entertain future students of the American presidency....

Which brings  us back to the blind Mr. Chen, who somehow eluded house arrest and got into the American Embassy in Beijing.  One wonders  just how that happened, and the tyrants who rule China are no doubt wondering  too.  It’s hard to imagine that the Obama  administration had much to do with Chen’s escape;  they don’t give a damn about oppressed  freedom fighters and dissidents anywhere, let alone the People’s Republic of China.  As with Iran, North Korea, and  Syria, Obama wants “good relations,” and such regimes won’t give you any if you  insist on raising awkward subjects like freedom and democracy....

Read entire article at PJ Media