General Marshall in Princeton, Thucydides in the Cold War

Abstract

This paper analyzes appeals to Thucydidian lessons made by George C. Marshal, in 1947, andLaurie Johnson, at the beginning of the 1990’s. The first one reacting to the Americanestablishment demands face the vicissitudes of the Cold War, and the second one claiming thenecessity of reacquiring Thucydidian lessons to the political realities of contemporary world. It isdemonstrated how the United States scholarly discourse has adapted its ideals regardingdifferent moments of the political ideology and historical knowledge paradigms correspondentsto these ideologies.