Foreign Policy of a Dukakis administration

Despite the election's lopsided result, a scenario in which Dukakis defeats Bush is not as fantastically unlikely as it might seem now. So, for the sake of argument let's say Dukakis actually wins the election. We all know the foreign policy crises that confronted President Bush during his term in office, the end of the cold war and the death of the USSR, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait etc. My question is, to the extent that those events were independent of the Bush Presidency itself, how would President Dukakis and his foreign policy team handle those situations?
 
One thing that was somewhat strange to me was the way that the fall of th Soviet Union quickly became somewhat passe.

I think that many in the West, really were surprised by the Fall and didn't want to play into the narrative that this validated Reagan's policies.

Now if the end comes with any input, say dropping SDI?, Dukakis would get credit for "not extending the Cold War with confrontational policies".

I could see a joint Dukakis/Gorbachev Noble Peace Prize.

Maybe a national holiday?

When the SU actually falls, I would image similar moves to help support them, perhaps smaller due to partisan Republican attacks. Money still mostly stolen.

THe Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait? Don't know. Would he intervene? Would he tryu to blow it off, and get stampeded by GOP attacks?

Probably cut defense even faster that Bush. Not much faster, as Bush was cutting pretty good, but probably a little faster.
 
I do wonder who President Dukakis' foreign policy advisers would be. I've heard that for the most part, they would be identical to President Clinton's first term foreign policy apparatus. That is, we'd see Warren Christopher as Secretary of State four years early. My question is how would those people handle the end of the cold war and the gulf war when compared to the historical showing of Bush Sr and his administration?
 
hahaha Mike and Mike


Dukakis would certainty relent aggression on the U.S.S.R for sure
(remembering that the arms race almost brought the U.S to collapse as well)

I don't know what to say about the gulf war, of course there is a chance if the U.S.S.R survives it might not even happen.
 
I wonder how Dukatis would handle the German Question. Buah was very supportiv for Kohl. I´m afraid Dukatis would propably buy Thatchers and Mitterands "german Re-unification endangered Gorbatschow" narrativ.
 
I do wonder who President Dukakis' foreign policy advisers would be. I've heard that for the most part, they would be identical to President Clinton's first term foreign policy apparatus.
So NAFTA would be carried through?
Intuitively, I could see it being deferred to a presumptive 2nd Dukakis term.
A c. 1990 Democratic administration would be significantly dependent on union support, and that would make NAFTA exceedingly controversial, particularly with mid term and presidential elections looming.
Effecting a Clintonian break with the past would be far more difficult than OTL.
 
Madeleine Albright was Dukakis' chief foreign policy adviser and was slated for National Security Adviser. Warren Christopher was a likely pick for Secretary of State. All come from the hawkish-internationalist school, so I imagine that despite the Democrats' OTL opposition to the Gulf War, they too would push for a military campaign to push Saddam out. (Though it's possible that domestic and intraparty opposition leads Dukakis to instead push for sanctions.)

No U.S. government is going to oppose reunification either after the Soviets signed off.

All together, I have a hard time finding any obvious changes from OTL. I'm sure there would have been some, it's just that none stick out.
 
See President Fowler in Tom Clancy-verse. Expect Dukakis to fold like a deck of cards when a crisis hits, saved only by his "independent" advisors. ;)

Also, Kealty is Ted Kennedy. :D
 
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