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Bhattacharya shows how this unabashedly forthright treatment of “morally fraught matters” earned von Neumann a reputation for hawkishness, as did his support for the logic of “preventive war.”

As George W. Bush’s vice president in the 2000s, Cheney would emerge as a fierce hawk — an advocate for covert action, preventive war and torture.

Presidential freedom to unilaterally commit acts of war unrelated to imminent threats would amount to an uncircumscribed power to undertake not just limited preemptive actions but to wage preventive war whenever a president unilaterally decides this might enhance national security.

Recall that George W. Bush’s doctrine of preventive war — sometimes disguised as “anticipatory self-defense” — elicited only modest opposition at best, largely along partisan lines.

Just months before joining the administration, he tried to make the legal case for a preventive war against Pyongyang.