Via Chicago Boyz, who got it from Andrew Sullivan, this interview with Robert Kennedy and Ronald Reagan in 1967. Chicago Boy Lexington Green notes, "Both of them were well-prepared, and they both strike me as smarter than the guys we have now. (I actually think RFK would have been a pretty good president in 1968, but that is a story for another day.) The Europeans asking them questions are just as contemptuous of Americans then as they would be now. Some things don't change."
An example of the contempt is this question from a European: "I believe the war in Vietnam is illegal, immoral, politically unjustifiable and economically motivated. Could either of you agree with this?" I guess you can't blame all of Europe's sneering disdain of America on Bush, can you?
I had never heard the argument that we were in Vietnam for economic reasons. I guess that one wasn't about the oooiiiiiiiiiil. Maybe we were there to steal the dense jungle foliage.
Posted by Mr Green at June 17, 2004 04:35 PM