The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.
For President Clinton, according to this discussion I had with him, Rwanda was a marginal problem.
I believe the most intricate plot won't matter much to readers if they don't care about the characters, especially in a series. So I try to focus hard on making each character, whether villain or hero, have an interesting flaw that readers can relate to.