General Flynn Offers Rules of Diplomacy for American Officials, To Step Away from the Brink

Aug. 9—Clearly alarmed at the war party' s headlong rush to nuclear confrontation against Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn offers a set of rules for American officials or diplomats, which might best be characterized as the opposite of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s boast that he had “lied, cheated, stole” his way through the CIA, and most likely as Secretary of State. Astounded by the stupidity, brashness, and lack of diplomatic skills shown by most American diplomats and government officials, General Flynn, who was removed as President Donald Trump's nominee for National Security Advisor in 2017 as one of the first victims of the now-exposed Russiagate hoax, and eventually thrown in jail to be pardoned by Trump, offered Aug. 5 a set of ten rules to guide the Americans’ diplomacy.

Crucial, he said, is the need to treat Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin with “the respect due a great power and a nuclear power.” He recalls his own experience, as Trump’s NSA nominee, attempting to initiate a normal diplomatic conversation with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, and the price Flynn paid for that. He warns that “this is a time for American officials to stop mouthing off at Russia like spoiled children,” and “follow some basic rules about behavior like not lying, cheating and stealing,” for “the sake of our children and grandchildren.”

It is instructive how frequently Gen. Flynn quotes from John F. Kennedy’s 1963 American University commencement speech, and his recalling how JFK dealt with the Cuban Missile Crisis by negotiating with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Here are the ten rules that Flynn describes:

1. The U.S. should not lie: Lying between great nations “never accomplishes anything except breaking the trust that great nations must have in each other.” Flynn cites various historical cases in which lying had led to disaster, warning that “Lies may be the currency of covert operations, but not the direct communications between great nation leaders.”
2. The U.S. must not break its word. Here Flynn cites the notorious lies told to Russia that NATO would never move East of a united Germany, which was never honored by any U.S. President, The U.S.’s breaking its word about NATO’s Eastward expansion “is the principal reason [Russia] viewed Ukraine as an existential threat.” How might the lives of Ukrainians have been different “if we had kept our world and NATO had not expanded?”
3. The U.S. should not insult, demean, ridicule, or threaten. Recalling the insults and epithets thrown about by many American officials, insulting Putin as a “thug” and “gangster,” Flynn asks, “What good does this kind of sound bite do?” He recalls the dangerous threats of Gen. Christopher Donahue against the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, effectively countered by Russian State Duma lawmaker Leonid Slutsky.
4. The U.S. should never support assassinations. Recalling public threats American officials have made to “take out” Putin, Flynn asks, “Have we not had enough assassination attempts of President Trump that we still want to legitimize assassination of world leaders?”
5. The U.S. should never call for “regime change.” How many U.S. officials have called for Putin’s overthrow, such as former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul? “How would we feel if President Putin called for the downfall of President Trump?”
6. The U.S. should always be willing to negotiate. Again, Flynn points to John F. Kennedy, who, he said, “often gave us wise counsel, including in his 1961 inaugural speech when he said, ‘Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.'" Kennedy overrode the CIA and the Pentagon to negotiate directly with Khrushchev in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
7. The U.S. should view the dispute from the other nation’s perspective. The real reason for Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has nothing to do with the lies that have been told to the American people. NATO’s expansion forced Russia to take action, viewing it as an existential threat. Flynn again quoted JFK’s American University speech: “Our leaders need to have a moment of introspection.” It’s time to “reexamine our own attitude—as individuals and as a nation.” People must look inward, examining their own attitudes.
8. The U.S. should never back a nuclear weapons power into a corner. Again Flynn quotes JFK’s American University speech: “…while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to [a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war]. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy—or of a collective death wish for the world.”
9. We should never assume that only the U.S. wants peace. Both the United States and Russia share a mutual abhorrence of war: “Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other.” Flynn describes Russia’s terrible suffering during World War II—at least 20 million lost, destruction of a third of the national territory, two-thirds of the industrial base destroyed. Today, in a 2025 poll, 80% of Russians say they want a closer relationship with the U.S. It is false that Russians are irrevocably hostile to America.
10. The U.S. should never steal. The U.S. stole $300 billion from Russia, and this is to be used to fund the war against Russia. “Is it any wonder that such treatment causes other countries not to trust us?” Is it any wonder “that other countries are motivated to create an alternative financial structure to avoid the West, such as BRICS? BRICS was created in 2006…. BRICS ‘was designed to bring together the world’s most important developing countries, to challenge the political and economic power of the wealthier nations of North America and Western Europe.’ Given how much we took of what belongs to others, should we be surprised when Russia looks for more trustworthy economic partners?”

In his conclusion, Flynn again quotes from Kennedy’s AU speech: “I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great power can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resorting to those forces.” Although the U.S. has for some time experienced “endless wars,” that took place “over there,” a nuclear war “would not be like that.”

Thus, Flynn advises, “It is time for our leaders to control their emotions. It is time to guard our tongues. It is time to show respect to our adversaries as well as our friends. If we behave with respect, perhaps then we could find a way forward with our adversaries.” So, he affirms that if he were advising Trump now, he would urge him to implement these ten rules for the Executive Branch; and urge voters to reject candidates for Congress whose “irresponsible rhetoric brings us closer to nuclear war.” He would ask Americans to pray that God give elected and appointed officials wisdom “required to lead our nation…. I pray that if we demonstrate such an act of self-control, God would honor it, bring us back from the precipice of nuclear war and protect the United States of America.”