A group of political heavyweights have just released an open letter addressing Republican nominee for president Donald Trump’s recent remarks on NATO and Russia.
- The group includes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former CIA director and defense secretary Leon Panetta, senior officials, and military officers. It also includes several Republicans.
- The group referred to Trump’s remarks as “disgraceful statements that betray our long-standing values and national interests embraced by presidents of both parties.”
- The open letter addresses several issues: Trump’s questioning of NATO’s value, his plea for Russia to hack the US Department of State to retrieve Hillary Clinton’s infamous lost emails, and his seeming willingness to acknowledge Russia’s annexation of Crimea by Russia.
- The open letter doesn’t throw any support to Hillary, but it makes a clear anti-Trump statement: “Every president, without exception, has accepted the wisdom of this strategy. That is why we find Trump’s cavalier denigration of NATO so worrying and so objectionable. Strong alliances are essential to U.S. national security. America needs a president who will strengthen our alliances, not denigrate and destroy them.”
- In an exclusive interview with Globalo, a top Trump advisor tells Trump’s real position on NATO–and it may surprise you!
See the full letter and list of signatories below:
Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary of State
General John R. Allen, USMC (Ret.)
Former Commander of NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan
Jeremy Bash
Former Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense and CIA
John B. Bellinger III
Former Legal Advisor to the Department of State and Former Legal Advisor to the National Security Council
John Beyrle
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and to Bulgaria
Ian Brzezinski
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy
Nicholas Burns
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador to NATO
William J. Burns
Former Deputy Secretary of State and Former Ambassador to Russia
Derek Chollet
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
Lt. General Dan Christman, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former U.S. Representative to the NATO Military Committee and Former Superintendent of the United States Military Academy
General Wesley K. Clark, U.S. Army (Ret.) Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, 1997-2000
Richard Danzig
Secretary of the Navy, 1998-2001
Evelyn Farkas
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia
Lee Feinstein
Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland
Michele Flournoy
Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, 2009-2012
Lt. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, USMC (Ret.)
Former Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Military Committee NATO
Philip Gordon
Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and Former White House Coordinator for the Middle East
Marc Grossman
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador to Turkey
John Herbst
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and to Uzbekistan
Kathleen Hicks
Former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Christopher Hill
Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Iraq and South Korea
Beth Jones
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia
James N. Miller
Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, 2012-2014
Leon E. Panetta
Former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA
Thomas R. Pickering
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador to Russia
Steven Pifer
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine
Marcie Ries
Former U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and to Albania
Kori Schake
Former Director for Defense Strategy and Requirements National Security Council
Randy Scheunemann
Former Defense Department Consultant
Wendy R. Sherman
Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Julianne Smith
Former Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden
Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret.)
Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, 2009-2013
James Steinberg
Former Deputy Secretary of State
Andrew Weiss
Former Director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia National Security Council
Damon Wilson
Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs National Security Council
Christine Wormuth
Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, 2014-2016
Kenneth Yalowitz
Former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia and to Belarus