Plus ça change…

John Vinocur and The European Dream Through American Eyes:

The acceptance of trans-Atlantic reality, [an] American said, meant that basic postwar divergences in vision between America and Europe (the welfare state, religion, the legitimacy of military force, etc.) had been exposed by the passing of the cold war. Since the 19th century, America's annexation of Florida, and a European ambassador's complaint back then about "an extremely aggressive country," he said, not much had changed.