THE NIGHT of the New Hampshire primary I dreamt I was present at a secret meeting between George Washington and General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown. Washington entered Cornwallis's tent, sweeping off his tri-cornered hat as the fate of America hung in the balance.
Gee, George, I love your new wig. It's perfect. How do you do it? How do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?" Cornwallis asked.
"It's not easy, it's not easy, Charles," said the father of his country, softly. "And I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do."
As tears welled in his eyes, and his voice choked, Washington said: "You know I have so many opportunities from this country - I just don't want to see us fall backwards. So, you know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public. And thanks about the wig."
Visibly moved, the Marquis thought for a moment. He had been considering a breakout from the surrounding French and American troops. The polls all showed Great Britain winning the war. But he turned to Washington and promised he would surrender his army on the morrow. It was what they call a defining moment in the long campaign, and Washington rode it to the White House.
The scenery suddenly shifted, as it will in dreams, and I was with Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan Hill in the green, jungle-covered mountains of Cuba. The Rough Riders were getting ready to charge. Teddy, on a beautiful white horse, rode up with a flag of truce to parley before the battle began. The fate of the Spanish Empire hung in the balance.
"Hay mucho caballo," said one of the Spanish defenders. "How es possible to keep him so blanco in the heat and dust of this stinking place?"
"It isn't easy," Teddy said, as his eyes grew moist. "I have had bully opportunities in this country," he said in a constricted voice, "and I just, you know, don't want to see us fall backwards down that hill."
The Spanish soldiers looked at each other, and, affected by Teddy's tears, said: The hill is yours, Señor Teddy. We are heading back to Spain."
Roosevelt and the Rough Riders suddenly vanished, and I was in the White House Situation Room at JFK's elbow as he picked up the hotline and dialed Moscow in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The fate of the world hung in the balance.
A rough-sounding Nikita Khrushchev picked up and said: "Nyet." But Kennedy, showing his vulnerable side, spoke to the Soviet leader with choked-up emotion.
"What's the matter, Jack?"
"It's not just political. It's not just public," JFK told the leader of all the Russias. "It's about our country, it's about your country, it's about our kids' future, and it's really about all of us together."
There was a long silence on the other end of the hotline. An audible gulp came down the line from Moscow. Khrushchev put his hand over the phone, but everyone in the situation room could hear him say, "Withdraw the missiles, turn our freighters around."
Suddenly the Situation Room vanished, and there I was even further back in time, on the "vasty fields of France." It was St. Crispian's eve, before the battle of Agincourt. The night was damp and there was some quiet grumbling around the campfires. Everyone had seen the polls. The French were 12 to 13 points up, and there was some despair in King Harry's camp. There was talk of replacing some of the key figures in the campaign, and, even though Harry had made it clear he would fight on through Super Mardi, the reality was that if the coming battle were lost, it would be the end of Harry's campaign. The fate of France hung in the balance.
Shedding his stern image, Harry gathered his knights, and softly said: "You know, we happy few, we band of brothers, I just couldst not do this if I didst not believe, you know, passionately, that, be he ne'er so vile, he who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, from this day to the ending of the world."
The knights, cheered, but suddenly King Harry and his tears dissolved, and I awoke to hear the news from the vasty fields of New Hampshire.
H.D.S. Greenway's column appears regularly in the Globe.
