• As President Donald Trump struggles to fulfill his campaign promise to bring an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, he and his team should review what another American president did facing a similar challenge seven decades ago. In his 1952 campaign for the White House, Dwight David Eisenhower pledged to end a bloody war that had claimed more than 3 million lives on the Korean Peninsula. Over the next six months, he actually did it… If Trump hopes to match Ike’s record, he has just 121 days left.
• Reflecting on this history, it is difficult not to hear echoes of what has happened in the past three years since Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. In February 2022, Russian forces launched their attack, advancing rapidly before stalling on the outskirts of its capital Kyiv. Then in a remarkable feat of courage and determination, Ukrainian fighters with arms and ammunition from the United States and Europe unexpectedly pushed the Russians back to retake about half of the land Russia occupied in its initial offensive. By November, eight months into the war, the rival armies found themselves stuck along a line of control that has not moved substantially since. What American military analysts call Russia’s “lava” advance has been seizing roughly 100 square miles of Ukrainian territory a month in the Donbas.
• [During the Korean war, when peace] negotiations dragged on, so too did intense fighting for another year and into election season in the United States. While the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson essentially supported Truman’s position on Korea, Eisenhower made this a major issue in the campaign. He pledged to use his authority and skills as a military commander to quickly end the war. To make this happen, as soon as the election was over, Ike “went to Korea” to talk directly and candidly with South Korean leader Rhee and his military commanders… At the same time, Eisenhower also employed pressure to win concessions from the North Koreans and Chinese. Finally, recognizing that his objective was not simply to end the war but to achieve a sustainable peace, Eisenhower crafted a Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and South Korea that included a continuing presence of U.S. troops in a joint U.S.-South Korea command.
• The similarities… are instructive. A new president, determined to be a peacemaker, comes to office unencumbered by the legacy of the war and is thus able to make a sharp turn. That president is less vulnerable to criticism from right-wing critics and thus has more flexibility to make concessions without being accused of being weak on communism or failing to win. On the campaign trail, promises to end a war were a winning message with an American electorate that was tired of the killing and did not care much about the details.
• The key to Eisenhower’s success in fulfilling his promise will also be essential for Trump. Ike took the lead himself in a direct, focused effort to close the deal. If Trump can channel Eisenhower, using [Trump's] authority to hammer out an agreement that neither Zelenskyy nor Putin will like but that will end the killing, prevent another outbreak of war, and allow Ukrainians to start rebuilding their country, he will be able to claim that he has achieved the peace “deal of the century.”

Read the full article at The National Interest.

Opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author. Photo by George Sweers via AP.