History Wins Out in the End

The Administration's Attempts to Re-Write Failure

Hi All,

This piece emerges deep from my historical heart. Ive been fascinated about how public figures try to so hard to shape how they will be remembered. Unless they drop dead (see Franklin Roosevelt) they often go to great lengths once their period of power is at an end to control the narrative about how their careers will be remembered. This starts with flattering articles and memoirs (see Angela Merkel’s most recent whitewash) where their sagacity is applauded and their triumphs outlined in great detail—often by themselves.

They also often employ court reporters and historians (the Kennedy’s were great with that) to produce what seem to be fair histories but really are laudatory homages. Its natural I suppose. Power requires constant reassurance, and people who have power are used to being fawned over, praised and deferred to constantly.

During their lives these efforts are often successful, and they can very much shape not only how they are viewed but, crucially, how they think they will be remembered. And that might give them comfort as they head to the grave—but of course it is also futile. No person is the guardian of their historical reputation, and after their passing it will inevitably be dissected and analyzed in ways that they would have found distinctly uncomfortable.

This is a good thing. Being in power gives the policy maker huge advantages in their life that often need correction. They have access to huge institutions who will take it upon them to praise them to the skies and make it seem like they were brilliant strategists. Maybe the Biden Administration’s best example of this lately was the Bob Woodward book, War, which presents an extremely laudatory view of the administration’s foreign policies. And what we have seen in the last week from the Biden Administration in its attempts to create a positive narrative over their (in my mind foolish) reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Sullivan and the Brilliance of a Spotless Mind

The Biden Administration made a huge play about their supposed Foreign Policy brilliance and sagacity. Biden himself was considered one of the most experienced foreign policy politicians in US history when he took office, and he supposedly surrounded himself with geniuses. No one received more praise than National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who Biden described as a “once in a generation intellect”.

Of course the problem that they have now is that having presented themselves as such brilliant practitioners, their policies have actually resulted in a series of missteps and disasters. From the shockingly poorly planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, a Ukraine policy that took a great strategic opportunity and lost it completely, and a Middle Eastern policy that was based on hopes and dreams (the Biden administration was de-escalating crises in the region up until October 2023 it seems) or was not there (the administration played no real role in the important events that just transpired in Syria), the Biden Administration has little concrete about which to boast.

Though that has not stopped them trying.