Recently Published

My Letter of Resignation

by John Brady Kiesling

Late last month Mr. Kiesling resigned as an American diplomat. He sent the following letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Dear Mr. Secretary: I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart. The baggage of my upbringing included a felt obligation to give something back to my country. Service as a U.S. dip

Letter from Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Following is a letter Ms. Klinghoiffer emailed to friends several days ago. We thought it worth publishing and asked her permission to do so. She agreed. Yes, George W. Bush looked sad and exhausted. He may not like to second guess himself, but he knows that he has made a costly mistake. Letting Powell go the UN route has seriously damaged not only his administration but, much more importantly, American credibility. Hence, both the price of keeping the peace and fighti

Well, At Least President Bush Is Trying to Go To War the Right Way

by Thomas Fleming

Watching -- and listening -- to the chorus of voices opposing George Bush's call for war on Iraq has stirred ironic thoughts in this historian's mind. No one seems to be aware that he is the first president in our history to try to persuade the American people to wage war by appealing to their heads rather than their instincts.Let's start with World War II. Merlo Pusey, in 1941 an editorial writer for the Washington Post and later a distinguished biographe

Does Saddam Think He's a Modern-Day Saladin?

by Eric H. Cline

As George Santayana cogently observed, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Valid comparisons can certainly be made between ancient and modern societies -- including Rome and the United States. It is also true that those who remember the past can deliberately attempt to repeat it, or at least to use recollections of the past to pursue modern objectives. This appears to be the case with Saddam Hussein, who has studied the history of ancient and me

Is the Supreme Court Likely to Back the Pledge of Allegiance?

by David Greenberg

So "Under God" is unconstitutional after all. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a controversial 2002 ruling that public schools can't make students recite that two-word phrase as part of the Pledge of Allegiance. In the nine Western states that this court covers, official recitals of the God-infused pledge are now forbidden. Unlike last June, when politicians savaged a three-judge panel that struck down public-school recitals of the religious form of th

Are Poets Always Against War? (No)

by Edward J. Renehan Jr.

Today's headlines are full of stories about poets who rail against war with Iraq. An organization called Poets Against the War claims to have gathered poems and statements from some 12,000 American"writers," known and unknown, mostly the latter. Poets Against the War plans to take this immense ball of verse - the good and the bad, the profound and the inane, all jumbled together - and hurl it in the direction of Congress on Wednesday, March 5th. They have also declared the 5th an International D

Why Public Opinion Matters in the Making of Foreign Policy

by Hans J. Morgenthau

Following is an excerpt from Mr. Morgenthau's classic, Politics Among Nations. The kind of thinking required for the successful conduct of foreign policy must at times be diametrically opposed to the kind of considerations by which the masses and their representatives are likely to be moved. The peculiar qualities of the statesman's mind are not always likely to find a favorable response in the popular mind. The statesman must think in terms of the national interest, concei

Who's Behind the Anti-War Movement?

by David Horowitz

To be successful in the war against terror, it is necessary to understand the enemy and his strategies, how he forms his alliances and how he shapes his tactics to achieve his goals. In President Bush's first address to Congress after 9/11, he correctly identified the forces that attacked us as "the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century," who followed "in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism." The religious roots of the pres

Horror Stories: When Journalists Mangle History

by HNN Staff

Do you have a horror story to tell about an encounter with a journalist obtuse about history? If so, we'd like to hear about it. Please tell us your story by posting a comment below. Your answers will be helpful as we prepare for a panel hosted by HNN at the upcoming meeting of the Organization of American Historians concerning the love-hate relationship between journalists and historians. (The panel will meet Thursday April 3, between 1 and 3 pm.)

Stop President Bush Before He Wrecks the UN

by Howard N. Meyer

"Just for a scrap of paper Great Britain [is] going to war," Germany's chancellor, Theobold von Bethmann-Hollweg complained as the First World War began. The "scrap of paper" was the treaty that Germany disregarded when it invaded Belgium. Because of such dismissal of international agreements, the esteem that Germany had enjoyed until then among neutral nations quickly changed to hostility and fear. Britain and France exploited the "scrap of paper"

Does U.S. Intervention Overseas Breed Terrorism?

by HNN Staff

Is it possible we are making things more complicated than they are? The conventional wisdom seems to be that millions hate us for a bewilderingly complicated set of reasons. They resent our wealth. They despise us for our support of oppressive dictatorships. They are frightened by the modern world we have created and want to destroy it. They are in the grip of religious zealotry. They find our support of Israel intolerable and hypocritical. And on and on. Because they hate us they want t

Duck and Cover -- Deja Vu All Over Again

by David Greenberg

Within days, if not moments, the Homeland Security Department's duct-tape-and-sheeting advisory went from frightening to farcical. The government summons was met almost instantly with comparisons to those Cold War civil-defense programs that now strike us as relics of an hysterical age. "Duct and Cover," the headlines gibed. It takes a leap of historical imagination to conceive how the Cold War's nuclear attack drills, dog tags for school kids, and backyard

How Middle East Experts Have Let Down the Country

by Martin Kramer

Where are America's Iraq experts? According to one view, the media are hiding them from you. That's the claim of Juan Cole, University of Michigan historian. He's one of the establishment boosters of Middle Eastern studies, and a staunch defender of the Middle East Studies Association against all comers. (He also edits its quarterly journal.) In a recent piece on HNN, he complains that t

Whatever Happened to the Powell Doctrine?

by Ruth Rosen

Secretary of State Colin Powell must feel at war with his own doctrine. As the United States, Britain and Spain introduced a new draft U. N. Security Council resolution which laid the political and legal groundwork for a U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq, we couldn't help but wonder: Whatever happened to the Powell Doctrine?

We Are Badly Misinterpreting What's Happening in Korea

by Gavan McCormack

1. "Sunshine" The recent outpourings of analysis and comment on the "Korean problem" around the world are characterized by righteous indignation and denunciation. They tend to be shaped, consciously or unconsciously, by an "imperial" frame of reference, insisting that Pyongyang submit to the will of the "international community" when what is really meant is the will of Washington. To the

Column: Are You Ready.gov?

by P.M. Carpenter

You have heard about it. You have read about it. It made its debut as deadly serious stuff. But have you actually perused the Department of Homeland Security's web site, Ready.gov? Probably not. Odds are, what you know about it has come from late-night comedians, frantic relatives, fair-and-balanced Bill O'Reilly, or hardware salesmen stuck with palettes of duct tape and plastic sheeting. So as a public service, I present to you real segments of the real

Let's Hope We Do Better in Iraq than We Did in Cuba

by J. Herbie DiFonzo

While the current Iraq crisis is quite appropriately focused on the rationale for a proposed American invasion, much less heed has been paid to the costs and consequences of a post-war American occupation. We have, however, traveled this road before, and the historical analogy is worth considering. Prior to the Spanish-American War of 1898, American sentiments were inflamed by the tyrannical behavior of the Spanish overlords of Cuba and the Phillippines. One U.S. Senator declar

Affirmative Action is Just the First Step

by Philip Rubio

"This is about race discrimination and racial preferences!" That was Larry Purdy, Center for Individual Rights (CIR) attorney, speaking on the Tavis Smiley NPR show, broadcast in front of a live (and very lively) audience in Detroit on February 7, 2003. Purdy represents Barbara Grutter, the woman who claims affirmative action cost her admission to the University of Michigan law school. That day in Detroit he was speaking in support of Grutter's suit that will

Saddam Turned Neighbor Against Neighbor

by Robert Rabil

If the United States overthrows Saddam Hussein, one of the most difficult and important postwar decisions will be finding those guilty of war crimes and punishing them, while not penalizing those unwillingly forced to do evil deeds by the regime itself. In this respect, it is important to understand that Iraq's government, like the former Communist regimes of Europe, has developed a web that made many of its citizens into informers and persecutors of the rest. Examining thousa

Just Who Is Sleepwalking Through History?

by Ronald Radosh

The anti-war movement has not only been marching. It has been busy sending out mass e-mailings of Sen. Robert Byrd's recent remarks to the U.S. Senate. Anti-war groups apparently find the West Virginia Democrat's speech the most eloquent statement of their beliefs and arguments. Yet it is striking similar to a speech by Ohio Republican Sen. Robert A. Taft's in May 1940 -- a speech correctly viewed at the time as the epitome of isolationism. Byrd gave his speech just as Secretary o