This is CBS I in the World. I'm John Batcher with George Freeman, the founder and chairman

of Geopolitical Futures, a subscription site. And we go to George's forecast. Now sometimes

he's 10 years out, sometimes he's 100 years out. This looks to me to be immediately, because

it deals with the United States, Russia, India, in their present posture towards each other.

The US George, we've talked about China not going to war, but going to the negotiating

table. Is the US in a good position right now with regard both the war in Europe and

the confrontation with China in Asia?

At the moment, the United States is in a very good position because they have a naval force

dealing with the Chinese and ground forces with anyone else. Be very foolish for anyone

to try to attack us, they're foolish people. But I would say that we are in very good

position, so long as we keep building weapon systems.

Our domestic policy is said to be the shaper of our foreign policy. That would mean inflation,

recover from the pandemic, arms into Ukraine. That doesn't sound stable, George. Is it

especially the Ukraine piece because it's connected to energy resources?

Well, during the Vietnam War, we had surging inflation. We, after the war wound up with

tremendous unemployment. We also wound up with depression, recession, if you will. It

was a terrible time economically. The racial situation was intensely bad. All these things

are there. The US survived it. And moreover, maintain its ability to carry out foreign policy.

So the United States is a very strange place. It can be facing instability that would break

other countries. And at the same time, having panic in the United States and come out of it.

So by 1981, we were out of the mess and into the tech age. So we have to always look at

the past to understand what the future future is going to hold. And we've been here before.

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