Prologue : "We do big things" -- Truman at the creation : "The United States must run this show" -- Containment at war : Truman, the military, and regime change -- "Enough is enough" : Eisenhower and the perils of retrenchment -- Boy commandos of the New Frontier : "making maximalism safe" -- "Mainly violins, with touches of brass" : Johnson against his advisers -- "We have not been divided : Johnson at war -- Retrenchment and Vietnam : "get going, take risks, be exciting" -- Retrenchment and detente : "a nihilistic nightmare" -- "Outspend them forever" : did empathy and optimism end the Cold War? -- "No one else can do this" : Bush, Clinton, and the retrenchment that wasn't -- Things related and not : Bush and September 11 -- No wiggle room : Obama and retrenchment.