By early in Bill Clinton's first term the cabal was in place. Tony Lake, conscientious objector to Henry Kissinger, was the new national security assistant. His deputy, Samuel Berger, was a foreign policy liberal and multilateralist – later found guilty of stealing classified national security documents. Number three on the new NSC staff was Nancy Soderberg, a young female acolyte of Senator Ted Kennedy, a liberal relativist of impeccable credentials. At Foggy Bottom was Warren Christopher, a secretary of state whose previous White House service had been in the vacillating Carter administration, 1977–81. Several other ex-Carter people reappeared in the new Democratic administration. Within weeks of their residency in Washington these men and women were calling for and were on the way to implementing a foreign policy of democratic enlargement, engagement, humanitarian assistance, and international social work.

There was, in short, a liberal conspiracy at the heart of the Clinton administration. This domestically focused president – a man whose most effective campaign slogan was ‘It's the economy, stupid!’ – was victim to a liberal cabal who made foreign policy in its image.