Money, Power, Politics, by Joyce Purnick: on War & Peace

Mike Bloomberg: 1960s: No burning passion to go war, but it was expected

In his memoir Bloomberg wrote that [during the 1960s] he was "trying to do the right things--serve my country-- while also trying to maintain a measure of control over my life." His campaign literature rang with the same patriotic theme. Years later, he sounded more practical than patriotic, like millions of others who tried to get through the Vietnam era in one piece, their reputations also intact.

"I don't know that anybody wanted to serve, that I wanted to serve," the mayor told me. "I thought I had to and I was gonna go do it. Did I have a burning passion to go to war like some of these young kids do? No. But it was just what you were gonna do."