Poker, The Cold War, And A Reagan Bonus

Hidden in the Sports section of the Saturday Times is a piece by historian Michael Beschloss about poker and the Cold War:

Harry Truman, Five-Card Stud and the Cold War

We learn about Warren G. Harding, Roosevelt, Truman, Churchill, Eisenhower, and even Tricky Dick (who apprently was just that):

During World War II, although he belonged to the Society of Friends, which opposed gambling, Richard Nixon cleaned up in five-card stud and other forms of poker while serving in the Navy in the South Pacific, reputedly earning the king’s ransom of about $8,000 (nearly $98,000 today).

Sporting a pith helmet, Nixon observed that “whoever is talking the loudest is pretty sure to be bluffing.” Still, one Navy friend watched the quiet player they called “Nick” relieve a senior officer of $1,500 (almost $20,000 now) with only two deuces.

A jump and:

The metaphor of poker ran through Cold War history... 

In 1971, President Nixon sought to end the American estrangement from China, hoping that this gamble would unnerve the Soviets into pressuring the North Vietnamese to end the Southeast Asia war. Nixon’s national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, boasted to a reporter that his boss “wasn’t the best poker player in the Pacific for nothing.”

Kind words for Nixon? Where is my chair? Still, this is the NY Times and this is a contemporary historian, so you know where this isn't going (or at least I did) - surely Reagan won't be given a star turn, despite the topic being the Cold War. But not so fast!

But the shrewdest player of all may have been a president who had never especially favored poker. In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan upped the ante against the Soviets by increasing defense spending and devising his Strategic Defense Initiative (S.D.I.), both of which, he hoped, would spur the Kremlin, feeling outgunned, to sue for peace.

Historians will argue for decades over how much Reagan’s strategy encouraged it, but on a weekend in November 1986, inside a little house in Reykjavik, Iceland, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed to destroy both countries’ nuclear arsenals if Reagan would pledge to shut down S.D.I. and trim the United States defense budget.

At that moment, the end of the Cold War came into view. Reagan’s secretary of state, George Shultz, pronounced the private bargaining “the highest stakes poker game ever played.” As both poker aficionado and champion of freedom, Harry Truman would have been delighted.

That's what I'm saying.

BONUS WAR ON SOMETHING OR OTHER UPDATE: Who among us failed to enjoy Obama's "Don't call my bluff" poker metaphor during one or another of the budget showdowns.

 

Comments

[DrJ]

Where is everyone?

[Ignatz]

Our enemies recognize the present WH occupant is strictly an Old Maid kinda guy.

[Miss Marple]

Checking in here, Dr. J.

Thanks to narciso and JiB for letting me know Omar is a fairly common name in Latin America. I didn't know that.

You can learn something here every day!

[Rick B]

Ignatz,

BOzo managed to bluff Beschloss out of his reputation even though Old Maid may well be beyond his capability.

[NKONIPAD]

Why would we evercarewhat that fool beschloss has to say about anything.... 'highest IQ evah'

[Jeff Dobbs]

DrJ:
Where is everyone?

Not again.

Ok, here we go.

caro is back home after traveling in Europe.
daddy is in Hawaii
Beasts is just about to go to bed because he's running on three hours sleep at this point, but first another bloody mary
I'm on my deck
You, of course, are up the hill and inhaling second-hand forest fire smoke
JiB is at a soccer game
Gmax is on the gulf coast hunting for easter eggs that he will then use to play ping pong or something
Ext is off traveling some very dark places on the internet

[Sue]

"Don't call my bluff." From the smartest president ever. Gak!

[Danube on iPad]

I thought "don't call my bluff" was one of the stupidest things I ever heard. I suppose he meant "I'm not bluffing," but hell....

[Old Lurker]

Hit, and OL is still on Nantucket and Jim Rhodes should be home from his second vacation in the heart ward this year...

HB to CC and James!

[maryd]

HB CCal and James D!

[Porchlight]

Happy birthday centralcal and James D!

Stephanie, when is the ATL meetup? Mr Porch's new band has a show at Smith's Olde Bar on 11/14.

[rse]

http://www.smithsoldebar.com/

Since I live inside the perimeter that's easy to get to for me.

[Porchlight]

Long long ago in the old Roger Simon blog days, a commenter who had been a classmate of W's at Yale said that W had the reputation of being the best poker player at the school.

[rse]

Back from Goodwill. Now time to pick up the teenagers who just sang at the sandy springs festival.

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

That weekend! That would work great if DrJ came in a bit early for his conference.

[DrJ]

Steph, check your email.

[narciso]

the Arabs occupied Spain for nearly 8 centuries, and we were copacetic for about three, then El Cid,* went all 'braveheart

*Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar

[Stephanie accidentally OnT?]

DrJ... you have mail.

[clarice]

HB , CC!

Beschloss--the guy who said Obama was the smartest president to ever sit in the WH?