Sublime

Washington wanted to show that his motives were spotless, that he was a true gentleman and could be trusted with great power, and the delegates applauded his generosity. As John Adams declared, “There is something charming to me in the conduct of Washington. A gentleman of one of the first fortunes upon the continent, leaving his delicious

Al-Qaeda’s planes operation seems to have been guided by a larger strategy: provoke the United States, draw it into a war in the Middle East, force infidel governments there into crisis (they would have to either accommodate the unpopular occupiers or fight them), and then defeat the United States on the ground, just as the mujahidin had defeated

George H. W. Bush, the American president at the time the Berlin Wall was dismantled by German protesters in November 1989, deserves special praise for his handling of the Cold War’s final chapter. Bush has been criticized for not making more of these events, but he was careful not to humiliate Communist leaders and risk provoking a situation that

Roosevelt and Reagan didn’t found their eras. The era was in crisis, and that crisis could not be solved in conventional ways. A break with the past was essential, and Roosevelt and Reagan presided over what was necessary.

Bush told the Senate that McCarthy “has caused dangerous divisions among the American people because of his attitude, and the attitude he has encouraged among his followers, that there can be no honest differences of opinion with him.