With diesel deal, Trump is teaching Reagan’s lesson to a larger class

In June 1982, Ronald Reagan imposed sanctions to prevent European firms from using American technology to help build a pipeline that would carry Soviet gas to western Europe. He warned that Europe was making itself a hostage to the Kremlin and contributing to the Moscow’s war chest. Then, 18 days before that November’s congressional elections, he offered to sell the Soviet Union up to 23 million tonnes of grain. Europeans, told to tear up their own contracts while American farmers were invited...