President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry in 2016 with leaders from European Union countries, China, Russia, and the United Nations. (Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a speech Monday night previous administrations had made “foreign policy decisions that didn’t serve Americans well or put Americans first,” and had allowed “the doctrines of global elites dictate our engagement.”

Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Fla., Pompeo contrasted the Trump administration’s approach to dealing with the likes of Iran, Russia, North Korea and Cuba, to its predecessor’s.

“When diplomacy is done well, it saves lives. It really matters,” he said, adding that doing diplomacy well helps American companies to grow their businesses abroad and create jobs at home, and helps to “keep our enemies’ finger off the trigger, keeping troops out of harm’s way.”

“But when we do it wrong,” he continued, “when it’s practiced poorly, diplomacy creates problems for our country, serious problems.”

Pompeo then cited, or alluded to, the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran; its response to Russia’s contravention of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty; playing “nice” in the face of Chinese trade rule violations; and an approach to North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations which he characterized as a mix of “appeasement” and “neglect.”

“We live in dangerous times,” he told the veterans. “No one knows that better than the men and women in this room. Some of that is because our leaders made foreign policy decisions that didn’t serve Americans well or put Americans first.”

“We struck deals that enriched rivals like the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pompeo said. “And when competitors like China broke some fundamentally basic mutual-agreed-upon trade rules, we simply played nice.”

“And when Russia violated important treaties, we sent them letters and just begged them to stop. And when rogue nations like North Korea had launched missiles and had tested nuclear weapons systems, we did too little.”

Pompeo said the U.S. had also abandoned friends, from Asia to the Middle East to Latin America.

“And perhaps saddest of all,” he added, “we let the doctrines of global elites dictate our engagement.”

Pompeo said getting diplomacy wrong “affords politicians easy accolades without doing the hard work to secure real achievements.”

“And we’ve learned the hard way that short-sighted diplomacy, bad decisions, have long-term consequences,” he added. “And when we make those bad decisions, it doesn’t do honor to your service, because, in fact, it helps the bad guys win.”

But rather than simply “staring at these problems or complaining about them,” Pompeo said, “it’s on our administration every day to do something about these challenges.”

He said President Trump was “unafraid to try new diplomatic tactics” when old ones had not been effective:

--On North Korea, he said, “we came into office and found that appeasement wasn’t working, and neither did neglect. So we’re maintaining pressure on the North Korean regime while keeping an outstretched hand for diplomacy.” The ultimate objective was the denuclearization of North Korea and the safety of countries in the region and around the world.

--The Iran nuclear deal, Pompeo said, “only made the regime more aggressive” and so the U.S. has “re-engaged with allies to exert pressure on that regime.”

(Pompeo used the opportunity to announce new sanctions on a Chinese state-owned oil trader, Zhuhai Zhenrong, for buying Iranian crude oil in violation of U.S. sanctions. “We can’t tolerate more money going to the ayatollah, putting American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, and putting their life at risk,” he said. “It’s too important.”)

-- “On Venezuela, our patience only emboldened [Nicolás] Maduro and his Cuban masters. We’ve led a 55-nation coalition to support the Venezuelan people in their quest for democracy, for freedom, and for prosperity.”

--“And on the subject of Cuba, we’ve reversed President Obama’s appeasement of the brutal Castro regime.”

Trump turnarounds

The Obama administration touted the Iran nuclear deal as a major foreign policy success. The regime received billions of dollars in sanctions relief in return for implementing steps meant to shut off pathways to an atomic bomb.

Major criticisms included the deal’s “sunset” clauses, under which key provisions expire after 10-15 years; verification measures seen as flawed since Iran refused to allow foreign inspectors free access to its military sites; and the fact the deal did not cover ballistic missile programs or other troubling Iranian activity.

Citing those concerns and others, Trump withdrew from the agreement and restored U.S. sanctions, as part of a pressure campaign aimed at changing the regime’s behavior.

On Russia and the INF Treaty, the Obama administration since 2014 accused Moscow of violating the Cold War-era treaty by deploying a land-based cruise missile with a range banned under the agreement.

Trump, by contrast, took action, and earlier this year suspended U.S. participation in the treaty. Absent reversals by either side, the treaty will be dead in about ten days’ time. (Russia denies the U.S. charge, and accuses the U.S. of violation the treaty.)

On North Korea, between 1994 and 2012 the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administration all offered Pyongyang concessions in return for suspension of nuclear activity.

The regime each time either failed to comply with its obligations, or complied for a while before violating the agreement, openly or covertly.

After a year of escalating tensions in 2017, last year saw numerous breakthroughs, including the first of three meetings between Trump and Kim Jong Un, the regime’s release of three American hostages, and its help in returning remains of Americans missing in action since the Korea War.

Trump has come under fire for making warm remarks about the Stalinist dictator, but points to the fact no nuclear or ballistic missile tests have taken place since the diplomatic effort began.

And on Cuba, Trump in mid-2017 rolled back his predecessor’s policies designed to normalize relations with the communist regime, and has tightened the screws on Havana over its propping up of Maduro in Venezuela.