Bush legacy is hidden here in plain sight
By Noemie Emery, Examiner Columnist
- 1/21/09

Legacies are funny things, and the first read is often the worst one, as it is seen from too narrow a range. From up close, all you can see is the short space around you, filled with weeds, brush, and clutter; from afar, the lay of the land becomes evident.
Under your feet, ground tends to seem level; only later can you look back and realize you have been walking down into a hollow, or conversely, been climbing a hill. In history, the story of the Cold War is of long clean lines running from Truman to Reagan; in reality, the lines were submerged in distractions and scandals.

In the accounts of their time, Truman , Eisenhower and Kennedy seemed drastically different; yet their similarity on basic matters of Cold War deterrence make them seem now like three-of-a-kind.

When Reagan left office, many thought him a failure, who left a mixed foreign policy legacy along with astonishing deficits. A few years later, he was the author of a booming economy, and the man who finished what Truman began.

Like Reagan, Eisenhower was seen by his critics as a smile with nothing behind it. Only later, when their writings were published was it really discovered how much they both thought, knew, and did.

Like theirs, Bush’s reputation is likely rise, and for three major reasons: 1) the story of exactly what he put in place to fight terror is almost completely submerged at this moment; 2) the reality of the menace Saddam was is being overlooked at this moment; and 3) the belief of the press and the left that the war in Iraq is still a debacle is likely to alter when a Democrat brings it to a more or less satisfactory close.

Obama’s swing to the right on Iraq and on terror began when he started to read the daily threat assessments as a president reads them, and to look at events through the eyes of a president. When the world and the public see things as he did, their minds will change, as did his.

Bush in fact is a great deal like Truman; not wholly a complement, as they also share much the same flaws. They presided over times of partisan rancor they were unable to moderate.

They were too indulgent of mediocre old friends from the neighborhood. . Truman ‘lost’ China, and Bush ‘lost’ New Orleans; (though China was lost by Chaing Kai Shek and New Orleans was lost by its mayor and governor).

They had negative talents at communication, and thus were unable to carry the country along when Iraq and Korea turned difficult. As a result, Adlai Stevenson shunned Truman’s embrace when he ran for president, and Bush was not urged to come to St. Paul.

And yet Bush and Truman got all of the big issues right. Truman saved Western Europe with the Marshall Plan, saved Greece (and perhaps Italy) with the Truman Doctrine, limited the Communist thrust to the areas already held down by the Red Army, and halted the military advance in Korea, with a difficult and sometimes mishandled war.

Bush defined the attacks as a war, not a crime, and took steps to safeguard the American people; liberated Afghanistan, liberated Iraq (in a difficult and sometimes mishandled occupation), that saw the Iraqis turn on both al Qaeda and jihad, and align themselves with the west.

All people remember now of Truman are the Marshall Plan and containment. Soon, all people will remember of Bush will be the ouster of Saddam and the rout of Al Qaeda, and the suitcase bombs that never went off in Manhattan, or in Farragut Square.

Washington was terrorized, but by two deranged snipers. London was hit, and India, and Indonesia, but not Bush’s America. On Meet The Press Sunday, Rahm Emanuel waxed rhapsodic over Bush’s security team’s dedication and competence. History will likely agree.

Before the sprawling and silly FDR theme park, Roosevelt’s sole memorial in the national capital was the small bloc at the Navy Memorial, which was all that he wanted. But his real memorial, as someone said, was the city around it, which, with its culture, survived World War II.

In New York, the towers are gone, but there has been no more damage. In Washington, Barack Omaba took the oath taken by Bush, Truman and Roosevelt in the same ceremony, in a city that looks much as it did on September 12, 2001. This in effect is the Bush Legacy - hidden right there in plain sight.