George W. Bush has been a much more voracious reader during his presidency than generally recognized, reportedly reading more than 60 books in 2006, including multiple volumes on Abraham Lincoln.  In his fascinating conversation yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute, Bush told the group he had been reading a lot about Lincoln recently, and had just finished James McPherson’s book on him.  That led to a humorous colloquy with AEI President Chris DeMuth: 

MR. DeMUTH: Another book that you famously read was Eliot Cohen’s “Supreme Command.” And he later went to work for you.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, he did.

MR. DeMUTH: Do you think he got it right in that book?

THE PRESIDENT: I can’t even remember the book. (Laughter.) I remember reading it, but give me a synopsis. (Laughter.)

MR. DeMUTH: That–

THE PRESIDENT: You can’t remember it either. (Laughter.)

MR. DeMUTH: No. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Just teasing. Did he work for you at AEI? Is that why you’re–

MR. DeMUTH: He was on our Council of Academic Advisers.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, okay. I did read it.

That was followed by DeMuth’s one-sentence summary of the book and a response by Bush that future presidents may find illuminating:

MR. DeMUTH: The essential point is that in history, in wartime, Presidents do well not leaving the war to the military, but being the supreme commander themselves.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, that’s right, yes. Well, you’re going to have to rely upon the military a lot. There’s four basic constituencies for a President during war; one is the American people. And this has been a difficult assignment, to convince the people that what happens in Iraq matters to our own security at home, that what happens in Afghanistan matters to the security, and that–the first task was to remove the regimes that threatened peace and threatened our security. And the next task is to not replace one strongman with another, but encourage a democracy to grow because we’re in an ideological struggle. And it’s the ideology of liberty that defeats the ideology of hate every time.

A second constituency was the enemy. And they got to know we’re going to go after them all times, all places–unrelenting pressure on them.

Third, in the case of Iraq, with the Iraqi people, they wanted to know whether or not America was going to keep its word, because if not, they’re going to find a local militia that could keep their families safe.

And the fourth is the military. And the military must know that the mission is just, the goals are clear, and the President will not be making decisions with their lives based upon an opinion poll.

Barack Obama, even before he has been inaugurated, has been compared to Abraham Lincoln.  Few people these days compare George W. Bush to Lincoln, but history may record at least one similarity:  both of them had war presidencies, learned that a war could not necessarily be won simply by relying on the generals in place, and realized that a driving idea – not just saving the union but spreading freedom throughout it; not just removing a dictator but establishing a representative government – was necessary in order to prevail.

In any event, future presidents would be well-served to remember the four constituencies in any war:  the enemy, the American people, the people in foreign countries, and the military itself.