A lot of people were ambivalent about Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson in 1964 positioned himself as the peace candidate. Once Johnson sent large amounts of troops into battle in 1965, most Americans were behind the war. H. W. Brands Read Quote
It’s hard to get in the head of somebody. The closest we can get is through the words they’ve left behind, either their contemporary correspondence or after-the-fact memoirs. H. W. Brands Read Quote
The more of my readers I encounter who say, often apologetically, that they are actually listeners, the more I write for the ear rather than the eye. Small things like identifying speakers in dialogue rather than relying on paragraphing to mark the shifts. H. W. Brands Read Quote
When the Constitution was written in 1787, there was this supposition that American politics would be above party. The people who would staff the positions in government would have the interests of the country, or at least their states and congressional districts, at heart, and so they wouldn’t form permanent political parties. H. W. Brands Read Quote
You can always find people, ordinary people, who will support your particular view, so it becomes a politics of personality, especially at the presidential level. People often go for somebody that they like or somebody that they can identify with. H. W. Brands Read Quote
Reagan’s enduring value as a conservative icon stems from his resolute preaching of the conservative gospel, in words that still warm the hearts of the most zealous conservatives. Yet Reagan’s value as a conservative model must begin with recognition of his flexibility in the pursuit of his conservative goals. H. W. Brands Read Quote
It wasn’t the smiling Trump that people elected. It was the frowning, glowering, angry Donald Trump that people elected. H. W. Brands Read Quote
The president of the United States from the 1940s until 2017 was considered the leader of the free world – probably the most powerful person in the world – not simply in terms of America’s military might but in terms of the moral authority of the president. Donald Trump has largely abdicated that. H. W. Brands Read Quote
