To talk of the Cold War only in terms of the impact it had on U.S. foreign policy overlooks how it affected the American presidency. Of the forty-three presidents the United States has had, only twelve of them have held office since 1933: FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr. Of these, nine have served since 1960, and, except for Eisenhower, they all had previous political experience, including five ex-governors and five vice presidents (three of whom had been senators). Only one, JFK, went directly from being a senator to president, and all twelve are known as modern presidents.

Compared to traditional or premodern presidencies (from George Washington through Calvin Coolidge), in which “Congress was the main engine of national policy-making,” modern presidents are modern because they, rather than Congress, have become the major force driving U.S. diplomacy. Granted, there were a few notable exceptions: the temporary assertions of legislative power in the mid-1930s, and at the end of the Vietnam War and Watergate.