U.S. History

How Nixon Advised Clinton

Featured image A remarkably interesting letter (“Eyes Only”) that Richard Nixon sent to then-President Bill Clinton in March 1994, after Nixon returned from a trip to Russia and Ukraine, has been declassified and made public. Luke Nichter writes about Nixon’s letter in the Wall Street Journal: Nixon anticipated a more belligerent Russia, the rise of someone like Vladimir Putin, and worsening relations between Moscow and Kyiv. Nixon emphasized the importance of Ukraine, »

The Lincolnian Zelensky?

Featured image Tucker Carlson has served a valuable service in giving voice to qualms that should ruffle the political consensus that has driven our support of Ukraine. He seeks to highlight uncomfortable facts that should belie the uniparty consensus, or at least make it more thoughtful. Last night he devoted his opening monologue — “Everybody is lying” (video) — to denouncing Ukraine President Zelensky as a tyrant. Tucker’s monologue was predicated on »

Trump commemorates D-Day

Featured image This morning President Trump commemorated the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied northern France by Allied forces. Trump joined French President Emmanuel Macron in honoring the attending veterans of the battle and their fallen colleagues at the site of the invasion just above the beaches of Normandy. I have posted the text of the president’s eloquent and moving speech below the video, which really has to be seen. »

Watergate revisited: A footnote

Featured image Last month I took a look back at the Watergate scandal in “Watergate revisited.” I am afraid we will have more occasions to chew on the subject in the coming year. At the moment, I want only to add this footnote. The best book I know of to review our current state of knowledge of the scandal is James Rosen’s The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate »

Obama needs to stop believing his own BS

Featured image Leon Wieseltier considers what Obama needs to learn from Putin’s aggression against Crimea. In essence, he concludes that Obama needs to stop believing his own bullshit. Wieseltier is far too elegant a writer to put it this way. Instead, among other things, he writes: [T]he Ukrainian crisis is not a transient event but a lasting circumstance with which we will be wrestling for a long time. We must mentally arm »

What’s so great about America: Ayers vs. D’Souza

Featured image On Thursday night unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and Dinesh D’Souza engaged on the subject “what’s so great about America?” at Dartmouth College courtesy of Young America’s Foundation and sponsored by The Dartmouth Review. They met on stage before a large audience at Spaulding Auditorium in the college’s Hopkins Center. Katie Pavlich calls it a “must see debate.” Ann Kane provides an interesting assessment here. The Right Scoop offers this rundown »

Moynihan’s Moment, with a Minnesota twist

Featured image Having read Suzanne Garment’s column “With words we govern men,” inspired by Gil Troy’s new book on Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the American opposition to the UN’s 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution, I invited Professor Troy to write something for us following up on his book. He has graciously obliged with a column that highlights the local Minnesota connection to the story. Professor Troy writes: With President Obama’s announcement that »

Lewis Cass and seven decades of American history

Featured image I have a theory that if we keep Power Line going long enough, everyone will appear in a post. For example, Scott recently mentioned the long-forgotten 19th century politician Lewis Cass in a post about Elizabeth Warren. I then mentioned Cass in a post about surrogate candidates. Actually Cass doesn’t deserve to be forgotten, and wouldn’t be if American history were taught properly. Cass was an influential Senator and Governor, »