(The Swamp) - The current occupant of the White House said the following about the righteous protest in Iran, "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights," He also said, "I'm very concerned based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made that the government of Iran recognizes that the world is watching... How they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and is not."

These words give hope, like so many words that we have heard from President Obama.

But there is a nightmare scenario that our empty-headed "first citizen" is unaware. It happened a few years before he was born in Kenya, and, God knows, he certainly wouldn't have learned it in a Hawaiian public school, filled with "gaijin" and "haoles." They barely teach American history anymore in Hawaiian public schools, much less, the lesson Eisenhower learned over Poland, from 1954-1955.

The Poles tried to overthrow Soviet Russia's influence in their country and were slaughtered for it as the United States stood by, doing nothing. It was, he was to say later, the only time, he was embarrassed as president. This seemingly cowardly stance embittered young people all over the globe. I was there. I remember the bitter disappointment.

But Eisenhower, also, could not let the event go without comment: "NUMEROUS REPORTS have been emanating from Poland which indicate ferment and unrest. These are accompanied by stories of Soviet troop movements. I am closely in touch with Secretary Dulles in an effort to ascertain the facts. Naturally, all friends of the Polish people recognize and sympathize with their traditional yearning for liberty and independence."

We went before the United Nations. Nothing happened. We wound up doing nothing but bluster.

Eisenhower thought he was right. What were we, the US, to do? Start WWIII? America didn't have the stomach for it. We were just getting used to a world without a Korean War. So-called intellectuals were already snickering about the House Un-American Activities Committee. We only found out, after the fall of the Soviet Union, that Soviet co-option of American intellectuals was nothing to snicker about. Eisenhower, at the urging of England, beefed up NATO's missile presence and increased B-52 flights out of Greenland and Alaska. Some think this was why, when it was Kruschev's turn at Soviet Premier, he sent missiles to Cuba.