Michael Beschloss on Presidential Courage

Michael Beschloss will read from Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 tomorrow, Tuesday, June 19, at 6:00 pm at Coolidge Corner Theatre. Tickets are $5 and available at Brookline Booksmith.

When a president dies, who are the networks gonna call? Historian and brainy talking head Michael Beschloss. Beschloss' latest book evaluates the moments when a president made a lonely, unpopular, and ultimately correct choice. Many of the leaders we admire were hated at one point because they dared to look at the facts, take a chance, and do what was right: Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, JFK and civil rights, Truman and Israel, the list goes on and on.

Where our current leaders fit will no doubt be part of the discussion after Beschloss' reading. The book doesn't cover George W. Bush, and, in a recent Newsweek piece, Beschloss says it's too soon to tell how he will be evaluated.

However, his comparison of Bush to Nixon reveals quite a lot: "When Richard Nixon expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia in 1970, he boasted that he had overruled the doubts of his top advisors. We know now that Nixon's action prolonged a hopeless war…. George W. Bush's most controversial decision as president may suffer the same fate. Even the most diehard Bush supporters will not deny that future generations may agree with today's majority of Americans that his Iraq War was a tragic mistake."

Image of Beschloss book cover from Amazon.