We’re finding out now what might have happened if Burr had won the election of 1800 & what that means for North Korea
America's close call in 1800 is back with a vengeance
We tend to forget it now, but Aaron Burr, a truly bad person, came very close to becoming president. The results of the 1800 election were deadlocked, so it went to the House of Representatives, which voted some 35 times without breaking the tie between Burr and Thomas Jefferson. On the 36th try, Jefferson was elected.
Everyone agreed that Burr was no good. Alexander Hamilton hated Jefferson, but he despised Burr. Of Burr, he wrote to a friend, “He is as unprincipled & dangerous a man as any country can boast; as true a Cataline as ever met in midnight conclave.”
I mention this because I think we are now finding out what it would have been like had Burr, a man of unlimited selfishness, been elected. The difference now, of course, is that our Burr has a nuclear weapon.
We tend to forget it now, but Aaron Burr, a truly bad person, came very close to becoming president. The results of the 1800 election were deadlocked, so it went to the House of Representatives, which voted some 35 times without breaking the tie between Burr and Thomas Jefferson. On the 36th try, Jefferson was elected.
Everyone agreed that Burr was no good. Alexander Hamilton hated Jefferson, but he despised Burr. Of Burr, he wrote to a friend, “He is as unprincipled & dangerous a man as any country can boast; as true a Cataline as ever met in midnight conclave.”
I mention this because I think we are now finding out what it would have been like had Burr, a man of unlimited selfishness, been elected. The difference now, of course, is that our Burr has a nuclear weapon.
So, in the spirit of the times, I am now establishing the “Official Best Defense Meter for War with North Korea by the End of 2018.” I am setting it at 54 percent.
More from Foreign Policy

Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.

So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.

Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.

Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.