6 JUNE

Pardon me? 

The president has the absolute power to pardon himself, but won't be needing it Donald Trump said in a series of tweets. The president wrote "As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?"

The tweet came after the New York Times published two letters by President Trump’s lawyers addressed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller that insisted that Trump couldn't obstruct justice, because he is technically the head of the Department of Justice. Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared on ABC News to state that the president "probably does" have the power to pardon himself legally, but would be challenged politically. "Pardoning other people is one thing, pardoning yourself is another," Giuliani said. 

Honorary associate at the USSC Nicole Hemmer wrote in The Age that due to the political nature of impeachment, so long as Trump maintains the backing of conservative media – which fosters support in his base – he is largely shielded from congressional checks. If a self-pardon fails to jeopardise this support, it will therefore be up to the courts to determine the limits of Trump's pardoning rights, Hemmer argues. But the president's respect for any such decision remains another matter altogether. 

NEWS WRAP

Pomp and Summitry 

• Trump's national security advisor John Bolton has been sidelined ahead of the June 12 summit with North Korea. CNN reports that the 'hawkish' Bolton has been excluded from meetings with North Korean officials, including in the Oval Office. These reports come after Bolton's recent prescription of the 'Libya model' for North Korea reportedly strained the summit process. READ MORE HERE
   

• An ex-Trump campaign aide has been accused of witness tampering by the Mueller probe. Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, is accused of using encrypted messenger programs to reach witnesses before their testimony to federal prosecutors. Manafort is already facing accusations of money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. READ MORE HERE
   
• China is alone at sea, which gives the United States the advantage writes USSC non-resident senior fellow John Lee. Writing for the Washington Post in the aftermath of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Lee argues that the absence of China at this 40-nation conference, as well as the statements of those who attended paint a clear picture of the world's vision of the Indo-Pacific: free, open, democratic and in accordance with international law. READ MORE HERE
   
• The United Nations has condemned US immigration policy despite the protestations of Nikki Haley. The UN Human Rights Office expressed explicit concern about the practice of separating children from their parents at the US/Mexico border. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, rejected the criticism out of hand, saying "neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders." READ MORE HERE
   
• Donald Trump cancelled the invitation for the Philadelphia Eagles to visit the White House. The president abruptly called off the event when it became clear that only 10 players from the Super Bowl-winning team would be attending after Trump's repeated demands that players stand during the national anthem before games. In place of the ceremony, the White House held a "celebration of the United States". READ MORE HERE
   
• Thousands of voters in California's gubernatorial elections have been left off the voter roster due to an error. In total more than 118,000 voters from Los Angeles County were left off the roster, meaning that they didn't receive provisional ballots in the vote for outgoing Governor Jerry Brown. California's complex 'jungle primary' system means that the two top candidates in this vote will face off in November. READ MORE HERE 

He's the new patron saint of our first amendment. Here's someone who would like to get rid of all the watchdogs. But because of him, all the watchdogs are barking, and they're all barking all the time.

Walter V. Robinson
Editor at large of the Boston Globe during his visit to Sydney for the USSC
4 June 2018

ANALYSIS

Stop worrying: We can still love the bomb 

Stephen Loosley AM
Visiting Fellow at the United States Studies Centre

Dr Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece.

Some may argue, with more than passing justification, that Kubrick’s masterpiece is either The Paths of Glory or 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is true that these other claimants are exceptional films which have endured. But the differentiating element to Dr Strangelove is that the movie not only endures, it has a continuing relevance for the international climate of today with its heat and passion.

Released in 1964, Strangelove is the ultimate Cold War film where the stresses of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies play out against an absurd backdrop of a confrontation which should never have occurred.

The plot is disarmingly straightforward. A Strategic Air Commander, General Jack D. Ripper – brilliantly portrayed by Sterling Hayden – obsessed with the Communist threat to his vital bodily fluids, lapses into insanity and sends his wing of B-52s to attack the USSR under the auspices of Plan R for Robert. Plan R was devised to permit American commanders in the field to deploy and use nuclear weapons in the event that the White House and the customary chain of command, beginning with the President, was destroyed.

The critics of Strangelove maintained that this could not happen. We now know that President Eisenhower, under pressure from his military, agreed on just such an arrangement being in force for the US nuclear deterrent. What is more, the Soviets had a similar system for their last line of defence, called Perimeter.

This is what is so remarkable about the film. Originally, Kubrick was making a drama based on Peter George’s novel Red Alert. In fact, Kubrick actually told two of his principal actors, George C. Scott (General Buck Turgidson) and Slim Pickens (Major King Kong) to play it straight. What Kubrick came to understand however, was that Strangelove would work much better as a satire and the screenplay by Terry Southern and Kubrick twisted reality a fraction of a notch.

The salient reality of Strangelove is that it demonstrates beyond doubt how easy it is to slide into a war with catastrophic consequences. In 1983, the Soviets believed that the Reagan administration was about to launch a NATO first strike upon their empire. This was only averted at the eleventh hour.

Of recent times, given confrontations from North East Asia to the Middle East to Eastern Europe, it is readily apparent that the same kinds of imperatives can come into play. The hotline between Washington and Moscow had only been recently introduced when Strangelove was released and its inadequacies are on display. The current disputes in the South China Sea sometimes lack even the crude ability for the United States and China to talk that the Americans had with the Russians in the early 1960s. The danger is obvious.

Peter Sellers plays three roles in Strangelove: The RAF liaison officer Group Captain Mandrake; President Merkin Muffley; and Strangelove himself who was a mix of Nazi rocket scientist Wenher von Braun; theoretical physicist Edward Teller; and RAND analyst Herman Kahn. Indeed, it was Kahn’s book On Thermonuclear War, which discussed surviving a nuclear onslaught that led directly to the hilarious scenes in Strangelove about humanity surviving in mineshafts.

As a dark comedy, Strangelove works brilliantly. Spoiler alert now follows, because the best scene in the film must be said to be Slim Pickens riding the bomb down, rodeo style to its terrifying detonation. This is not only the culmination of the film, but a fitting end to Slim Pickens’ wonderful performance as the B-52 commander.

The actual end of the film involves Vera Lynn singing the British wartime favourite ‘We’ll Meet Again.’ This was suggested by Peter Sellers’ fellow Goon Spike Milligan on a visit to the set at Shepperton Studios. Kubrick was obliged to make the film in the United Kingdom due to a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the Pentagon.

The Pentagon’s preference is a cinematic footnote and is to be found in Rock Hudson’s A Gathering of Eagles, which depicts the Strategic Air Command as the US Air Force wished it to be seen.

The Cold War is a matter of history but its lessons remain chilling and real. Dr Strangelove is an echo of a reality which could quite easily assume definite form in this century’s frontiers of trouble and strife.

A couple of weeks ago the United States Studies Centre held a screening of Dr Strangelove. A sell-out audience obviously enjoyed both the film and discussion and Q&A which followed. Later this year the USSC will screen Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men, based on Woodward and Bernstein’s book concerning the Watergate Scandal and the fall of President Richard Nixon.

DIARY

The week ahead

• Thursday 7 June: NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels begins.
   

• Thursday 7 June: President Donald Trump meets with Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe in Washington.
   

• 8 – 9 June: Donald Trump attends a meeting of the Group of Seven major industrial nations in Quebec, Canada.

EVENT

Populism, authoritarianism and gender in Trump’s America

VIDEO

George Papadopoulos' wife issues plea for his pardon

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#PresidentialPardon

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Institute Building H03
University of Sydney NSW 2006

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