ABSTRACT
Greek mythology has it that when the priestess of Apollo at Delphi made ready to deliver a prophesy, she positioned herself upon a special seat supported by three legs, the tripod. The tripod gave a clear view of the past, present, and future. Like the priestess of Apollo, historians are climbing atop their own tripods resting on stacks of archival documents to have a look back at a Cold War unobstructed by secrecy and deception. Conservative Republicans are searching for a mission as politically advantageous as the Cold War. Liberal Democrats seek an equally challenging adventure, such as Franklin Roosevelt had of lifting the nation out of the Great Depression. Bill Clinton's "me-tooism" has created two Republican parties: a liberal Republican party led by Clinton's New Democrats that is more tight-fisted than its Democratic predecessors when it comes to spending scarce federal dollars, but is inclined to keep government out of people's bedrooms when it comes to advancing social policy.
