Sexing up American history

This lovely little bluffers’ guide to the founders of the American Republic came out of a chat Gore Vidal had in 1961 with his old friend, John F. Kennedy. There they were, Jack, Bobby and Gore, lounging around the Kennedy holiday compound in Hyannis Port after a vigorous game of backgammon — Gore won.

Jack — ‘dear Jack’ — and Gore fell into conversation, although it was less of a conversation than a question-and-answer session. Need you ask who was doing the questioning and who was giving the answers? The President of the United States was the pupil, Vidal his master. What the pupil wanted to know is why he was surrounded by second-raters while, in 18th-century America, a tiny backwoods country with only three million people, there were all these great geniuses, like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the first American ambassador to London and its second president.

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Vidal, in his lightning-quick, glib way, put it down to time: because the Washingtons and Jeffersons had more of it, staying on their farms throughout the winter, they read more, wrote more and, shock horror, actually did a bit of thinking.

This book is Vidal’s full, not quite so glib answer to dear Jack’s question. One reason is the exceptional circumstances thrown up by political crisis, with revolutions brewing in France and America. The other reason was the uselessness of the British opposition — as one observer said, ‘Any general in the world other than General Howe would have beaten General Washington; and any general in the world other than General Washington would have beaten General Howe.’

There is, though, quite a lot that can’t be explained in the magic make-up of Vidal’s heroes. What modern politician would, like Washington, refuse a salary and a kingship — he thought that kicking out George III and replacing him with an American George IV would have a funny ring to it.