Nigel Hamilton, British historian, has come out with a new book entitled, "American Caesars". This would strike most Americans as odd since we don't think of the United States as having an empire. Mr. Hamilton's premise is that outside of the U.S., many people have viewed us that way since the end of World War II. Before that war, the United States had roughly 17 military bases around the world, whereas now the number is over one thousand. The Romans didn't even compare to that scale.
The template for the book reaches back to a Roman historian, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, who wrote about the caesars of his time. One of Mr. Hamilton's ideas that made me laugh is that he compared both Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson to
Caligua. A new twist fit for thought! In his estimation, the four strongest caesars were FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and JFK.
Mr. Hamilton believes that Bill Clinton was the smartest of all of these Presidents. I don't see the evidence for that idea, but it brings to mind what JFK had to say when the White House hosted a group of forty nine Nobel Prize recipients. "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House -- with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
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6 years ago
2 comments:
Hmmm,I don't know if I agree about the comparison of Johnson to Caligula...Johnson was a political animal but got much more legislation passed than a lot of presidents,including (I think)civil rights and "war on poverty." Of course Vietnam brought him down. I would agree with the U.S. Roman Empire analogy,especially concerning military presence around the world. Also agree Clinton was one of the smartest presidents,but he had one fatal flaw...we all know what that was.Although Kennedy was influential I don't think he had time to be a particularly strong president...although he and his brother were a formidable pair. Well Tony,we could have a drink and discuss this at much length! Dee
Dee, Mr. Hamilton related the story that LBJ wrote a letter before the election of 1964 saying that he was not going to run. In his opinion, had he done that, and Vietnam had not brought him down, then he too would have been considered a great caesar for civil rights legislation among other things.
I picked up the Suetonius book for eighty-nine cents on my Amazon Kindle. Good shopper, eh?
Yes, I can see a fun, drinking discussion in the future.
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