Increasingly I suspect that George HW Bush may be one of the most under-rated American presidents since the Second World War. Politically, sure, he wasn’t the smartest, sharpest or smoothest and some of his greatest achievements – most notably the management of post-Soviet eastern europe – owed something to a policy of what was, in some senses and to some extent, benign neglect. But there’s a certain old-fashioned, perhaps patrician, wisdom in that too. The first Bushies got some things wrong and they got some kinds of lucky too but their reserve also helped them avoid too many self-inflicted mistakes.
It wouldn’t be quite right to say that the Obama administration is Pappy’s heir but its approach to foreign and security policy certainly borrows from the GHWB playbook. Nowhere is this more obviously the case than at the Pentagon where Bob
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in