President Clinton's speech last week about the bombing raids he had ordered on Serbia followed in a long tradition of such pronouncements from the Oval Office. Apart from the cut of their suits, not all that much has changed over the decades: the desks are clearer, the future just as cloudy.
PRESIDENT Roosevelt 1941
CALLED US righteous
CALLED THEM dastardly (Japanese)
RESONANT PHRASE a date which will live in infamy
DESK ACCESSORIES donkey ornaments
[PRESIDENT] Kennedy 1962
[CALLED US] peaceful and powerful
[CALLED THEM] reckless and provocative (Cubans)
[RESONANT PHRASE] The cost of freedom is always high--but Americans have always paid...