Daydream Believers

If Cold War presidents had thought and acted like George W. Bush, we'd all be speaking Russian.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008, at 6:38 AM ET

From: Fred Kaplan
Subject: In the 21^st Century, the United States Has Been Led by Fantasists
Posted Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008, at 6:38 AM ET

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When Condoleezza Rice became secretary of state, she hung a portrait of Dean Acheson in her office. As she explained in a Washington Post op-ed piece, Acheson worked in that office at the start of the Cold War, "as America sought to create the world anew." His portrait was to serve as a reminder that we too "live in an extraordinary time," that "the terrain of international politics is shifting beneath our feet," and we must "transform volatile status quos that no longer serve our interests."

George W. Bush liked to invoke the same era of history. In the fall of 2006, after the Republicans lost both houses of Congress, mainly as a result of the war in Iraq, Bush was said to be reading biographies of Acheson's president, Harry Truman. At a meeting of Republican congressional leaders, he noted that Truman's policies were unpopular in their day but were vindicated by history. The implication was that history would vindicate Bush, too.