Victor Davis Hanson // Hoover Institution
America has always enjoyed two antithetical traditions in its political and military heroes. The preferred style is the reticent, sober, and competent executive planner as president or general, from Herbert Hoover to Gerald Ford to Jimmy Carter. George Marshall remains the epitome of understated and quiet competence. The alternative and more controversial sorts are the loud, often reckless and pro-fane, pile drivers. Think Andrew Jackson or Teddy Roosevelt. At given times and in particular landscapes, both profiles have proven invaluable
