Robert Dallek

Unity is Obama's theme.

— Robert Dallek

Congress becomes the public voice of opposition.

— Robert Dallek

If Roosevelt didn't have World War II, he never would have had a third term.

— Robert Dallek

If nobody trusts you as president, then you can't get anything done.

— Robert Dallek

Harry Truman wrote scathing letters, but he almost never sent them.

— Robert Dallek

Nowadays, everyone seems to have a blog that finds readers.

— Robert Dallek

Political vitriol is a familiar enough characteristic of American history.

— Robert Dallek

Eisenhower was quite supportive of Kennedy and Johnson in terms of foreign policy.

— Robert Dallek

In counterfactual history, nothing is certain.

— Robert Dallek

Historians partial to Kennedy see matters differently from those partial to L.B.J. Vietnam has become a point of contention in defending and…

— Robert Dallek

Success in past U.S. conflicts has not been strictly the result of military leadership but rather the judgment of the president in…

— Robert Dallek

Despite its flaws, the American electoral system has produced Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, and Harry Truman.

— Robert Dallek

Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican nominee in 1952, made a strong public commitment to ending the war in Korea, where fighting had reached…

— Robert Dallek

The greatest presidents have been those who demonstrated astute judgment in times of crisis - often despite the advice they were getting.

— Robert Dallek

Every year since 1990, the Gallup poll has asked Americans to assess all the presidents since John F. Kennedy. And every year,…

— Robert Dallek

Flattery was one of Kissinger's principal tools in winning over Nixon, and a tool he employed shamelessly.

— Robert Dallek

By the time a second term rolls around, the illusions about a president have largely evaporated.

— Robert Dallek

Kennedy saw the presidency as the vital center of government, and a president's primary goal as galvanizing commitments to constructive change. He…

— Robert Dallek

The disaster at the Bay of Pigs intensified Kennedy's doubts about listening to advisers from the CIA, the Pentagon, or the State…

— Robert Dallek

At the end of their first years, there are few people who would have predicted that Truman would be elected in 1948…

— Robert Dallek

Few American presidents are held in higher esteem than Thomas Jefferson. Though historians have scrutinized every phase of his long public career…

— Robert Dallek

The 1890s was an intensely patriotic decade for Americans. It was a time of neo-imperialism, when the European powers and the United…

— Robert Dallek

Ronald Reagan in foreign affairs, I think, was someone who had certain, very general ideas, general propositions by which he lives: To…

— Robert Dallek

True, most Americans give lip service to the proposition that even the most exalted among us have their flaws, but we are…

— Robert Dallek

Truman is now seen as a near-great president because he put in place the containment doctrine boosted by the Truman Doctrine and…

— Robert Dallek

American politics is theatre. There is a frightening emotionalism at national conventions.

— Robert Dallek

After one party loses two elections in a row, there's sort of blood in the water.

— Robert Dallek

How many State of the Union addresses do people remember? They don't resonate that way.

— Robert Dallek

Presidents need to be critically studied and analyzed.

— Robert Dallek

The institution of the presidency was profoundly affected by Watergate.

— Robert Dallek

What did in the Soviet Union was the Soviet Union.

— Robert Dallek

There are limits on what a president can achieve or do, but the expectations are so great.

— Robert Dallek

At the start of first terms, presidents invariably have a measure of goodwill.

— Robert Dallek

With television, you can make anyone look larger than life.

— Robert Dallek

Access to presidential materials should be as wide as possible.

— Robert Dallek

George Washington sets the nation on its democratic path. Abraham Lincoln preserves it. Franklin Roosevelt sees the nation through depression and war.

— Robert Dallek

Once the public loses confidence in a president's leadership at a time of war, once they don't trust him anymore, once his…

— Robert Dallek

The Cold War is over. The kind of authority that the presidents asserted during the Cold War has now been diminished.

— Robert Dallek

There's a certain clubbiness to the idea that you're an ex-president. You're no longer a politician. You're a statesman.

— Robert Dallek

In seeking an empire of liberty, Jefferson wished not only to expand the country's territorial holdings, but also to extend American institutions…

— Robert Dallek