The "Vicious Cycle" is an expression in the study of the politics of the United States of America and the Post-Union States, describing a cataclysmic American war with the Soviet Union that happened every decade, with a new generation rising up to challenge the Union's place in the world, to be met with defeat. The term was coined by disillusioned U.S. General Joseph P. Hoar to describe the perceived futility of such actions in an interview with television personality David Letterman in 2010. The original quote is as follows: The incidents of the Vicious Cycle are widely seen to be: