He believes today that America gave Southeast Asia crucial breathing room. He was in New York the other day on his way to Boston to lecture at Harvard. No one could confuse Bill Clinton with FDR, or Tony Blair with Winston Churchill, nor, judged solely on size and presence, Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin with Stalin, or the succession of Chinese leaders who followed him, with Mao Tse-tung. Like any good diplomat with impeccable manners, the senior minister cannot be drawn into judging Al or George W. against these earlier worthies. The difference between Churchill and Tony Blair is the difference between the societies they led, one in a struggle for survival, the second unthreatened by anything more unpleasant than the bureaucrats of the European Union.
Comfortable circumstances produce leaders who promise people an even easier life.
But when the British felt Britain was slipping they voted for a conviction politician in Margaret Thatcher. . . . . When Americans feared their country had become weak during the Carter years . . . The dilemma is a universal one. The people have got accustomed to the comforts of a modern affluent society, and expect life to be better every year. . . . I view this with mixed feelings.