I was fascinated by Scott's review of a biography of Herbert Hoover's life, and particularly interested in his brief mention at the end of a recently-released "magnum opus" Hoover died before publishing:
> He had not quite finished his magnum opus, Freedom Betrayed. In 2012, historians finally dug it up, revised it, and released it to the world. It turned out to be 957 pages of him attacking Franklin Roosevelt. Give Herbert Hoover credit: he died as he lived.
That description is clever, but turns out to undersell it a bit. It's an extensively sourced work of revisionist history, something of a prosecutor's case against the way the US and Britain handled World War II. After reading a few reviews online, I became satisfied that it would be a worthwhile read. The top review from Amazon, I think, was the one that really convinced me:
> I knew that FDR was right at the top of a list of the worst presidents this country has ever elected. But, reading "Freedom Betrayed, Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath," edited by George H. Nash, convinced me that he and Obama share the number one spot!
Wonderful.
Hoover was a prolific and eccentric writer who tended to work on many volumes in parallel, then revise them to death and back. He started this book during World War II, then lived another 20 years and wrote, then rewrote it dozens of times, never quite willing to publish it during his life despite publishing an intimidating array of other memoirs and political writing. It started out as an aggressive polemic, which he then aimed to soften and strengthen by relying as thoroughly as possible on careful citations. Per the historian who introduced it, George Nash, it's possible that he never published it because he had managed to become something of a respected elder statesman and didn't want to once again face the inevitable wave of mud that would result from this sort of project. Still, he meant every word in it.
I'll be honest: I'm a total amateur with World War II history, knowing little more than the standard school fare. Add that to my standard contrarianism, and I'm pretty well primed to swallow a revisionist narrative without a second thought. In part to guard against an overly credulous rev
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I didn't include other big wrestling names like Andre the Giant (Princess Bride 1987) and Macho Man Randy Savage (Bonesaw in Spider-Man 2002) because I don' think they were actively trying to transition to an acting career. Andre the Giant sadly passed away not long after Princess Bride (6 years later due to health complications). And Macho Man was already 50-ish when he did Spider-Man and likely just did it for fun. He would do voiceovers for King of the Hill and other shows here and there.
Roddy Piper and Jesse Ventura actually had a decent amount of films under their belt, but their most notable stuff was They Live (1988) and Predator (1987).
But the ones like Hogan, Stone Cold, Big Show, Edge, Triple H, Diamond Dallas Page, Kane (who is a mayor now)...they've tried breaking into movies with 3-5+ films and it never caught on.
Was the timing wrong? Would they maybe have had more success if they were younger and tried their hand at movies during our current era, with more social media, better marketing, superhero films, and memes to help boost popularity?
Or do Dwayne Johnson, Cena and Bautista simply have that certain something that some of the others didn't have?
Desert Storm is mostly forgotten at this point, but it really is one of the greatest triumphs in American history. The entire international community viewed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait as illegitimate, and the US built a multi-nation coalition to oust Saddam's forces. Everything followed international law: Iraq ignored multiple UN Security Council resolutions to leave Kuwait, and rejected peaceful solutions to the conflict.
And it wasn't obvious that victory would be so easy. People on both sides of the aisle opposed the invasion β Ted Kennedy and Patrick Buchanan, for example β and Kennedy predicted 3000 US casualties per week. Iraq had the 4th largest military in the world at that point, and it was very experienced after having fought a 10-year war against Iran. Nevertheless, when the coalition invaded, the fighting was over after about 100 hours, and around 100 US combatants were killed. There must've been widespread celebration.
When we look at historic approval ratings, it seems that Bush's was at about 85% when Desert Storm happened, but by 1992, it had fallen below 50%. What happened? Why wasn't Desert Storm a lasting political victory for Bush? Why did his approval fall so suddenly, and how did he wind up losing to Clinton in '92?
Looking to trade my Box Of Fun art series Freddy Funkos. https://imgur.com/a/WakJ3Cg
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Main ISO: Kevin Nash chase and John Wick chase
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secondary ISO: marvel and offers.
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Art series white - LE 1000
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Art series blue - LE 2000
