Re: HIST: Eisenhower and Cincinnatus (was: Neal Stephenson's new essay)

J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Sun, 15 Aug 1999 16:00:16 -0700

Greg Burch contributed,
>Actually, it doesn't surprise me. Remember, this is the guy who ended his
>presidency with a chilling speech in which he warned the American people
>about the extent to which "the military-industrial complex" (a term he used
>in the speech) was preempting the formation of public policy by democratic
>institutions. He also oversaw the largest reductions in military force in
US
>history, even though ten years before he had organized and led the largest
>high-tech (for its day) military operation in history (with what was, under
>the circumstances, an amazingly small number of casualties). Along the
way,
>by his candidacy, he blocked Douglas MacArthur's bid for the presidency, a
>turn of good fortune the value of which it is hard to calculate, but is
>almost surely a very, very good thing. He was by no means perfect, but in
>many ways, Eisenhower lived up to the ideal of Cincinnatus we were talking
>about a while ago.

I'd vote for him. I mean, if I voted for anyone. ("Don't waste your vote... Don't cast it." --Bob Black)

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           >  -  <  check: http://www.zpub.com/notes/black.html