Gingrich Says Iran and North Korea Must Be Destroyed In an interview with CNN, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said that the U.S. "would never, ever, be safe if the North Korean and Iranian dictatorships survive." Gingrich said that he would use "all the techniques that President Reagan, Prime Minister Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II used to destroy the Soviet empire."
Gingrich outlined his plan stating, "I think our goal should be the replacement of the Iranian dictatorship with a maximum amount of effort to arouse students, arouse young people, arouse ethnic dissent, to finance every possible element of opposition, to build a radio and television free Iran, and to apply every possible economic sanction, including, if necessary, cutting off gasoline."