Most of the time, however, though ambition burned through him like a fire, he had no interest in the office of the presidency. A disastrous foray in 1988, flaring out before New Hampshire, was as far as he went in that direction. He had no politicians' sleazy graces, and was proud of that. The brusque attitude and tone had been instilled at West Point, together with the gimlet stare and the preference for dealing with America's adversaries, whether Cubans, Palestinians or leftist Nicaraguans, with a bombing run or an invasion. His duties at the White House, on Henry Kissinger's National Security Council and for Nixon, had been carried out while still under military orders and earned him a dizzy ascent, from colonel to four-star general in four years. His scar tissue came from battles both actual and political.

基于1个网页-相关网页