Scott Detrow

I want to talk about one other important aspect of this, and this is the way that presidents talk about soldiers who have lost their lives.

Here's something that President Trump said recently.

I think that's the way it is really struck a lot of people.

How have other presidents handled this hard idea of soldiers dying due to orders that they gave?

You know, I'm going to I'm going to take a skeptical view of this for a moment.

You know, the rhetoric has been lofty and soaring in many times.

America is fighting for democracy now.

If you're on the other side of that, if a missile is being shot into your community, if troops are invading your community, does it matter what the rhetoric of the U.S.

president is, whether this is framed in lofty goals or in crude, violent goals?

Is there a moment in recent history that stands out to you of a president kind of taking the opposite approach and trying to frame American military intervention in a positive way?

That is Barbara Perry, the co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.

Thank you so much.

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This episode was produced by Connor Donovan.

It was edited by Mallory Yu.