Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo weighs in after President Donald Trump claimed the ayatollah's statement downplaying the impact of the strike on Iran is a 'lie.'

"If, when the chips are down, the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world."

That is an excerpt from President Richard Nixon’s speech on April 30, 1970, when he announced the U.S. attacks on North Vietnamese-controlled areas inside Cambodia along the border with South Vietnam. 

This speech and the decision to strike across the South Vietnam-Cambodian border into the North Vietnamese sanctuaries in "neutral" Cambodia came six months after Nixon’s November 3, 1969, speech appealing to the country’s "great silent majority of my fellow Americans," and asking for their support as he began the "Vietnamization" of the long-running war he inherited when he took office in January 1969. 

MORNING GLORY: TRUMP'S SIGNATURE QUOTE ON IRAN CEMENTS A DECISIVE SUCCESS

More than a half million American troops were in Vietnam then, the result of eight consecutive years of escalation of the war and the commitment of combat troops under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. 

Nixon knew that he could not simply pull out and allow South Vietnam to collapse, as President Biden did in Afghanistan in August of 2021. Fleeing any conflict and leaving allies in chaos and confusion meant not only defeat, but a crushing blow to America’s standing in the world. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine the second time, six months after the debacle in Kabul. Weakness and retreat by America emboldened our enemies to attack our allies.........

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