President George W. Bush has expressed many times his desire to bring "freedom and democracy" to other lands. His wishful thinking follows many other leaders before him.
Like other Great Powers before them, both Russia and the United States had to grapple with the hard fact that their "universalist" message would not be automatically accepted by other societies and cultures.
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000, pp. 394-395 in the chapter "Stability and Change in a Bipolar World, 1943-1980
For several other examples of expectations of "great" leaders not being met, see
When will they ever learn...
