As President Donald Trump greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Tuesday, he will be faced with the same dilemma encountered by many of his predecessors in dealing with other countries and their leaders, namely, how to balance U.S. interests and values. For example, Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman had to meet and work with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in order to get his help in defeating the Axis powers in World War II. President Richard Nixon went to China to meet with Mao Tse Tung in order to undermine the Sino- Soviet Cold War alliance that was making it difficult to concentrate on the Soviet threat in Europe. President Barrack Obama felt it necessary to reach out to the Iranian leaders in order to get an agreement from them in halting their nuclear program.
The above excerpt was originally published in U.S. News & World Report.
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