The Third World War

Mr. Nixon’s Bitter Harvest

“The wisest princes who adopted the maxims of Augustus,” wrote Edward Gibbon, “guarded with strictest care the dignity of the Roman name.” Nor did they imagine that such a guard would be sufficiently maintained by sermons on international morality. “The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations in their confines, that they were as little disposed to endure, as to offer an injury.”