The first line supports the "great man" theory of history over "trends and forces". I never paid much attention to history, but I'm more interested in it the older I get. Maybe it's because now when I hear "nothing like this ever happened before!" sometimes I remember, "wait, I remember something like that in '94" It makes it more interested to know what other things have happened.

I had no idea you didn't call them Soviets. My kid had a book in which Yuri Gagarin lands in a field and scares a farmer. In the children's-book account, he says, "No, wait, it's okay. I'm Soviet." It stood out b/c it reminded me of being afraid of the USSR at that my kids' age.

In those Cold War examples of Vietnam and Afghanistan, I can't help but think US should have encouraged them to have whatever messed-up system they wanted while bribing them to send young adults here on exchange programs. I think even among the most simple-minded people, a choice between living in capitalism vs communism or a religious vs secular state is a no-brainer. Interventionists would reply, the communists/Islamists are the perpetrator, the people who live under them are the victims, and I'm proposing being the bystander who doesn't help. If we simply cannot make people respect people's rights, though, I'm against doing something just to avoid being a bystander. There's a never-ending supply of monsters to fight.