History matters. Truthful history matters more. It is essential for democratic government and good statesmanship. Thomas Hobbes captured this when he wrote: “The principal and proper work of history being to instruct and enable men, by the knowledge of actions past, to bear themselves prudently in the present and providently in the future.” But accurate history is difficult to separate from power, as Orwell famously identified when he wrote, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

Those who control the present jealously guard that power and are never reluctant to manipulate and contort historical facts to serve it. The Biden administration is doing precisely this. Over the past week and a half, Biden has unveiled an unprecedented effort of disinformation combined with the dispatch overseas of senior administration officials in a last-ditch effort to rewrite the history of their foreign policy decisions. This effort at deception is intended to reinforce the assertion that Biden’s foreign policy agenda was one of success and accomplishment. Unfortunately, Biden and his team have left a wake of global death and destruction—a failed agenda that has left America vulnerable.

The program of disinformation began with the genesis of Biden’s candidacy in 2019 and 2020 and continued during the four tumultuous years of his presidency. However, it is now at the end of his presidency that this destruction is clearly visible to the world. Most tellingly, it was on the last day of the year in 2024 when the Washington Post national security bon vivant David Ignatius wrote the following hagiographical revisionism of National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan’s time in office entitled, “The Strategist in the Hurricane.”

Examples of Ignatius’ sycophancy toward Sullivan include the absurd assertion of a “once-in-a-generation intellect with the experience and temperament for one of the toughest jobs in the world” with a “dazzling résumé.” The 74-year-old Ignatius continues his adoration, noting that Sullivan possesses “a rare ability to conduct back-channel diplomacy and think outside the box” and is “one of the most influential national security advisers in our history.”