 The "infamy framework" adopted by Roosevelt was given additional resonance by the fact that it followed the pattern of earlier narratives of great American defeats.The Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 and the sinking of the USS "Maine" in 1898 had both been the source of intense national outrage, and a determination to take the fight to the enemy.Defeats and setbacks were on each occasion portrayed as being merely a springboard towards an eventual and inevitable victory.