Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) co-founder Ray McGovern gave an interview to Glenn Diesen on Dec. 17 which had 29,000 views after only four hours. His analysis is that the plan for providing “guarantees” for Ukraine under any peace agreement, despite the fantasy proposals by the coalition of the “three blind mice” coming out in the press from the Berlin meetings this week, will neither be acceptable to the U.S. and certainly not to Russia. McGovern thinks U.S. President Donald Trump knows that, and is ignoring the Europeans, as shown in the U.S. National Security Strategy document.
On the overall danger of global war, Trump will need to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal from Sept. 22—that Russia will extend the limits imposed by the New Start arms control treaty for one year after it runs out on Feb. 5 of 2026, if the U.S. does the same. The problem is that Trump has not responded to that offer, but has only said “it makes sense to me.” Putin, who knows Russia has won the war on the ground in Ukraine, is not impatient, but he is not sure that Trump has the power and capacity to make that decision on his New Start proposal over the war party within the United States. McGovern believes the decisions regarding Ukraine depend on Trump’s making that decision about New Start.
His view on the National Security Strategy document is that this finally overthrows the Wolfowitz Doctrine, which sabotaged the post-U.S.S.R. peace, by asserting that the U.S. must prevent any other forces from becoming strong enough to challenge U.S. global hegemony. The NSS says the U.S. will focus on the Western Hemisphere, essentially leaving behind the confrontation against Russia and China (although the NSS definitely presents a policy of containing China—ed.). Trump has agreed with Russia that the U.S. has no “core interests” in Ukraine (even using the term “core interests,” which was generally used by Russia and China). By declaring the Western Hemisphere as its “core interest” it is acknowledged that there is no military threat from South America and the Caribbean, unlike Russia and China.
