As a young man, I was blessed to have a grandmother who took an interest in my education.
Mary L. Crane read almost constantly.
Her office and home were covered with books and magazines, tabbed for re-reading, and highlighted for the appreciation of more important passages. Mary was also a decades-long subscriber to Reader’s Digest and kept years’ worth of the magazine at home, in her office, and in her car, as well as at her beach house.
She introduced me to the Reader’s Digest book series, but also — and perhaps more importantly — to “It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power,” a monthly feature that offers new and often underutilized words to broaden my vocabulary. As she took me to Falcons games or live theater over the years, she would pop quiz me on vocabulary words from issues she knew I had borrowed. Her only repayment request for all of those gifts was to “Learn the words.”
So, with that spirit in mind, I toss out into the world three words to share and their meanings, in the hope they reach a few folks in the West Wing of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Some folks there apparently don’t read a lot, so we will keep it simple and straightforward and start with the “A-s.”
Ally: an ally is a friend, a supporter, in the geo-political sense, someone who has your back. Think of the Three Musketeers and “All for one and one for all!”
After WWI, America and its leaders chose a period of isolationism, high tariffs, and a withdrawal from world affairs. The years that followed would bring the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1917-18, a bursting stock market bubble in 1929, and our nation’s greatest period of economic depression through much of the 1930s.
While attempting to rebuild the American economy, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt saw our European Allies from WWI being torn down, occupied, and economically destroyed by Germany. Following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on U.S. Naval Operations at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor — by Japan, an ally of the adversary of our friends in Europe — F.D.R. and Congress declared war on Japan and its allies in Germany, which became known as the Axis Powers.
Thankfully, the Allies, the U.S., Europe, and aligned nations, including Australia, Canada, and friends in many other parts of the globe, as well as a late surprise shifting alliance by Russia from one team to the other, won that war.
The NATO Alliance that formed afterward remains perhaps the strongest demonstration of a geopolitical alliance in modern history. At least … it has been.
Adversary: An adversary may begin as a competitor, even a peer, who over time clearly does not have your best interests in mind, who often will place you in harm’s way, if not outright attack you. Many would view the words "adversary" and "enemy" as synonyms. Adversaries are generally hostile trade partners, may at times require sanctions or boundaries for any contact, and are generally not entirely trusted.
Asset: With our allies, friends, and supporters, we build and invest in assets of all kinds, including robust trade and defense agreements and treaties, and even joint ownership of many assets to ensure continued joint investment and goodwill.
In numerous cases, our U.S. military owns/ operates bases, air strips, and naval stations all over the world, including the demilitarized zone at the border of North and South Korea, in Berlin at the border of what was once East and West Germany, and in a Cuban detention center known as Guantanamo Bay.
There are even more in remote locations around the globe, including 13 installations, air strips, and posts in Saudi Arabia or the near-arctic corners of Greenland, where the U.S. Space Force operates one of its most critical air defense stations (and the U.S. formally operated 16 other installations after signing in 1951 a Greenland National Defense treaty).
As certain occupants at the White House are more prone to speaking than listening, this vocabulary lesson all boils down to really one sentence, and as my grandmother used to test me … it contains all of our new Lesson Words of the Day, and one bonus word.
“Turning allies into adversaries, at a cost of the loss of tremendous and long-term assets and partnerships, is simply asinine.”
Next week, we will make a quick jump to the “Ds,”: distraction, division, and dictators. Keep your eyes and ears open — and always keep reading.