Word: greats
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...doesn't this country have leaders like Roosevelt any more? some Americans wistfully ask. Nostalgia, of course, obscures the tremendous dissension and even hatred that were aimed at F.D.R. in the White House. Still, figures of his size may now be obsolete. The era of great individualists came to an end with Lyndon Johnson, and we are still trying to adjust to the new reality. Johnson lost two wars?the one in Viet Nam and the one against poverty; he demonstrated, among other things, that the resources of the U.S. are finite, a new and chastening realization for Americans...
TIME asked a variety of historians, writers, businessmen and others in public life, "What living American leaders have been most effective in changing things for the better?" Reflecting the continuing problem of leadership in the White House, no one named Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter. The great diversity of the people chosen mirrors the fragmentation of American society, one of the problems for leaders. The nominees ranged from relatively predictable to almost shocking...
HENRY STEELE COMMAGER, historian (Amherst College): Linus Pauling has provided leadership in an almost 18th century fashion by combining great distinction in scientific inquiry and in the moral arena. The second figure who has steadily, over a long and distinguished career, held up to our people a spectacle of greatness is Archibald MacLeish. He has inspired generations of Americans to a love of literature and of philosophy...
JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN, historian: We are too much inclined to view history from the standpoint of great men. This I think is a dangerous exercise. Blacks, in particular, have been caught up in what I call the Booker T. Washington syndrome, the idea that there is someone who speaks for the black...
...outstanding leaders. Connally, but there's the milk scandal. Kennedy, but there's Chappaquiddick. The academic and business worlds are limited in their views. David Rockefeller is really good but strictly narrow in the application of his skills. There's George Ball, who has shown great versatility, but he doesn't have national stature...